Another young solo songwriter fellow with an innocuous name? Shoo! We don’t care about your feelings! Go see a shrink! Go back to the ‘60s!
But relax friends, the Domino label would never foist upon us another moon-faced lovesick sap. Mr McGuinness possesses an almost Braggian strumming style, a Morrissey-onian acerbicism in the vocal department, and an armoury of robust uptempo rhythms – while also displaying a predilection for dreamy post-rock textures that stop just this side of Floydian.
But his portfolio of references also predates the ‘60s motherlode mined by your average pop minstrel, and includes skiffle, music hall and Tom Lehrer tunesmithery. McGuinness is a fair old crooner, as is evident on the single ‘Moscow State Circus’. True to its title, ‘Those Old Black And White Movies’ is classic doo-wop hitched to misty whimsy, while ‘Wendy Wonders’ is an Hawaiian hula sway, the Orbison of ‘Leah’ and ‘Blue Bayou’, all tuxedos, kettledrums and sweeping strings.
Nor is he fey or faint: a handful of shockabilly-powered numbers like ‘Nightshift’ provide considerable roughage, and ‘Crown The Clown’ exposes the singer’s vaudeville roots as he dons the hats of the rover, the rascal and the rake.
This eponymous debut is perhaps too frisky and unruly to qualify as a fully realised and definitive statement, but chances are McGuinness will refine his curiosities over the next few albums and emerge with a distinctive voice and vision. For now, this is intriguing enough stuff.