Пятница 20 Июл 2007, 17:18

This week, school officially ended for the summer. So, I've got mountains of time to write in, and mountains of time to listen to music in.

Since it's a "special" day for me, I'm going to break the usual rigmarole, and do a journal on two albums, and one other song.

The albums are:

The End Of History
If The Ocean Gets Rough

The song is:

Once We Were Anarchists

What's the common connector? Folk music.

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In Ireland, you'll find many things. Leprachauns, the Liffey, Guinness, and of course, all of those are found in Dublin. What else is found in Ireland, and in Dublin? Folk musicians.

All walks of life, and all styles of folk converge upon Dublin, but it takes an Irishman to show them how it's done.

Fionn Regan really puts his heart and soul into this album. The furthest I've delved into folk is Rosie Thomas, and she never really did anything amazing as far as I'm concerned.

Fionn takes this album and just puts it simple. It's all poetic, flowing, fluent and genuine. It's something awe-inspiring to see that he also made the Mercury Awards nominations this year, since he deserves it based on this album.

The songs vary, ever so slightly, but they do it in a way that creates an album that is worthwhile. It's true enough to say that he's almost like an Irish Bright Eyes, but in a unique way. It's not a similarity in style, but more of a similarity in their poetic, pure lyrics.

I love this. Honestly. If I could make love to a folk album, and produce little mini-folk albums at the end of it, The End of History would be the one for me. I just find it to be brilliant, in almost every way.

Overall:
*****
5/5

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Willy Mason, the 21st century hippie; the folkie of the future…is disastrously bland with his new output.

If you ever had Where the Humans Eat then you'd be hoping for something that lived up to that album. Sadly, there's nothing as good as that. It's all bland and piffle.

It has its good qualities, from a few songs, but all in all, it has more bad than good.

On the good side, there's songs that will make you, possibly, tap your foot slightly. On the other, the songs just drag, and loiter, and blend together, and in the end you tune it out.

I liked his older work, but this is just pointless. It seems like the last few years have been for nothing. What's even worse is the fact that it all seems so down, and it's as if Willy has lost his smile and charm, just from this album.

Even trying to put a good slant on it would be hard. It is by no means appalling; don't get me wrong, it's an average album. It's just that its so sluggish, with no light at the end of his gloomy tunnel.

Overall:
***
2.5/5

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When a song can speak about what you hope your life would turn out to be, you know it has to be good.

Frank Turner, ex-Million Dead, keeps getting better with age, like a finely matured wine, or a cheese; the big cheese of Folk Punk.

Well, anyway, he's like Billy Bragg, for the new generation, and with more of a personal, introspective slant on his songs.

It's this style that impresses me over and over. In this song however, I just love the way I can connect to the "chorus" idea that everything is pretty dull and, to put it bluntly, "stuff sucks".

If you ever get the chance, go out, and get this. It's a pretty nice look into British culture from the eyes of an ex-hardcore-punk-turned-acoustic-artist.

Overall:
*****
4.5/5

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A last minute idea has made me change this section, so let's see how it goes.

I've covered two folkies, so why not two folk punkers.

In this final, short "review" you get Smoke Less and Eat More Fruit.

SLaEMF are a Wisconsin based folk punk trio, and they really make my day. They have a style that seems so simple, but when you listen to the lyrics you see that they have a hell of a political opinion on most things.

I recommend if you ever hit Wisconsin, or they ever come near your home towne, that you head on over to the venue they are in or near, and get your ears to hear their views and sounds.

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So, for yet another week,
I thank you for reading,
and I hope you have a good time this summer.

CatatonicStupor