With Irish music in such great shape, it’s easy to dismiss the idea of the song and guitar man as a tired one. Troubadours like Glen, Paddy and the Damiens were the cornerstone of the Irish sound at the turn of the century (it still feels cool to say that, don’t it?), but with a kooky new genre materialising every other week on our damned isle, it doesn’t seem like there’s room for a crop of acoustic wonder-lads right now.
By stripping it right down to just a voice and a guitar, Waterford songwriter Marc O’Reilly is making a bit of a risky first move. Before I’ve gotten to the second song, I’m already pricking up my ears for some crazy gimmick or nutso Vocoder effect. Hey, don’t look at me that way! It’s 2011 and my attention span is shorter than Prince without his… erm…
So, you won’t find any shiny doohickeys on the credits here, but O’Reilly still serves up flashes of real brilliance. The hushed French mumblings on ‘La Question’ are hopelessly hip, the breakneck guitar on ‘Tell Old Joe’ is rather thrilling and our master of ceremonies deserves massive props for managing to segue from Afro rhythms to near classical guitar so effortlessly on ‘An African Day’.
Even the less extraordinary tracks bring a couple of clever touches; the muffled hums on ‘Lord Of War’, the shapeshifting tempo of the title track and the distinctive finger work on ‘The Scottish Window’ all help make this a remarkable debut.
It’s a pity, then that so much of My Friend Marx is taken up with standard, albeit nicely executed, indie folk fare. As a whole, the album seems like a bit of a muddle; I can’t help but think it would make for more compelling listening if O’Reilly had zoned in on one or two of his secret weapons, instead of beefing up the 12-tracker with sporadic cameos by horns, strings and hand drums.
Still, I should point out that O’Reilly’s vocals are husky, dreamy and right on the money (comparisons to the captivating Ray LaMontagne are completely justified) and that he’s certainly one of the niftier guitar players we’ve come across in the last 12 months.
As guitar and vox albums go, My Friend Marx is a darned good one. As long as you don’t get too distra… erm…