“I just sent the album off without any expectation that it would be covered,” Julie told Hot Press, “so I was really thrilled when I saw the review.”
Understandably so. Indeed, it is a remarkable testament to the quality of her work that, despite the fact that it has yet to be released in the US, the writer, Ben Ratliff, felt strongly enough about 13 Songs to demand space for it in what is arguably the world’s most prestigious newspaper title.
“Julie Feeney, a young singer from Galway, Ireland, has distinguished herself by focusing on her voice and keyboards and banishing guitars altogether, and she gets her sense of scale exactly right,” Ratliff writes.
Describing the material as “spare and sturdy”, he concludes that 13 Songs is “a charming, urbane, dreamy record, much more sophisticated than you would expect of a guerilla job.”
Feeney, who is originally from Athenry, is currently living in Dublin and is the subject of the regular ‘At Home With’ feature in the current issue of Hot Press, which is accompanied by superb photos, taken by Cathal Dawson.
13 Songs received a rave review in Hot Press in September, with Jackie Hayden describing Julie Feeney as “the most intriguing female voice to come out of Ireland since Sinéad O’Connor.”
“I’m doing it all myself, but things are going really well,” she told Hot Press. “I was really happy whan the album was reviewed in Hot Press, because I’ve been reading the magazine for years – so it meant a lot to me.”
13 Songs is in all good record shops now.