Thursday, August 18, 2011

First Impressions: Fionn Regan - 100 Acres of Sycamore

CLICK ME!
Fionn Regan is a rare musical treasure. From Bray, Co. Wicklow in Ireland he is a magical sort of folk musician who manages to both breath new life into a well worn genre and also be the epitome of it at the same time.

His debut album The End of History was critically adored and for very good reason. Incredibly crafted guitar rhythms mixed with both dreamy lyrics and heartbreaking tones created a jackpot of songs. A Mercury Music Prize nomination raised no eyebrows when it was announced.

His second effort The Shadow of an Empire came after a long 4 years of recording, marked by a rocky relationship with American label Lost Highway Records. This resulted in a never-to-be-heard album being shelved indefinitely and Fionn being dropped. However, The Shadow of an Empire bears no marks of this trouble and while not as well received as his first album was a brave change of direction with more electric sounds and a harder edge (the edge that Lost Highway deemed unsuitable).

I was happy to see that this third installment comes just a year and half later and with Regan on record as saying it was recorded in one week, he obviously had a much easier time of things. But will it turn out to be as good as previous offerings? Let’s see as I review the album in live time. 1 play through, thoughts as I get them.

To read this review, click this link here or Fionn's mop top head.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.