ENERGY ORCHARD: “Pain Killer” (Castle)

DESPITE ALMOST scoring a UK hit in 1990 with the undeniably excellent ‘Belfast’, and releasing several critically acclaimed albums, Energy Orchard have never quite succeeded in capitalising on their potent live form and their undoubted impassioned belief in their chosen brand of music. And like many similar outfits trading in American-influenced mainstream guitar rock, part of the band’s problem stems from the lack of a truly strong frontman.

Like The E-Street Band without Bruce, The Heartbreakers without Tom Petty or The Rumour without Graham Parker, Energy Orchard too often come across as a great backing band without a unifying central focus. This was borne out by the band’s appearance on stage with American country rocker Steve Earle at a show in London a few years ago. They played a stormer and provided the perfect powerhouse foil for Earle’s energy-charged mid-western growl.

Pain Killer is primarily big music with a heavy emphasis on 1980s’ production values – fat drum sounds, layered guitar textures with Hammond organ fills and rousing epic vocals. And though there are some non-rock embellishments like banjo and fiddle permeating the tunes, overall it displays little progress in the sound stakes. It also sounds curiously at odds with the more subtle approaches adopted by the successful guitar bands of the 1990s.

The band’s influences, while not exactly worn on their collective sleeves, are not positioned very far up their forearms either: the opening cut, ‘Wasted’ derives its energetic swing and melodic inspiration from The Waterboys ‘Fisherman’s Blues’ while ‘The Shipyard Song’ nods its lyrical and atmospheric head towards Springsteen’s ‘My Home Town’. The title track has the ghost of Jim Kerr’s lot written all over it and only ‘She’s The One I Adore’, a jaunty tuneful romp, and ‘I Hate To Say Goodbye’, a more subdued, tender piece, show promise in the songwriting area. ‘D.F. Dogs’, an instrumental is interesting too for its juxtaposition of traditional forms with rock rhythms.

With a guest appearance by Rory Gallagher on dobro and harmonica, Pain Killer is not without its occasional appeals but ultimately it fails to rise above the unremarkable.

• Colm O’Hare