With the singer-songwriters-versus-guitar-bands debate currently making waves, Derryman Paul Casey’s debut album comes as a timely release, effortlessly straddling the divide and likely to keep both camps happy. Casey is a gritty slide-guitar player, among a shopful of other instruments, as well as a crafter of naggingly catchy songs that have depth as well as hooks.
The single ‘Something’s Gotta Give’ is a brilliant slice of contemporary pop-rock, and the equally hypnotic ‘Climb’ adds brilliant uilleann pipes from Paul Cutliffe to the urgency of Casey’s production stew. The clever effects really work on ‘Dreamin’ About Mary’, a first cousin of the single, and there’s a sinister bluesy feel to ‘Big World’, with guitar figures that wander into Knopfler territory. The gently swaying duet ‘We Will Sing’ is a delicate love song, before the harmonica-driven ‘Thanks For Making Me Crash’ restores the full-on mood. Casey really turns up the heat on ‘Don’t Know How You Do It’ and ‘Bring Your Love Home’. The elegant ‘Little Sister’ is spiced with undertones from the east, and ‘Let Me Show You’ has the making of a fine blues ballad.
Casey’s broad palette of influences range from gutsy blues to Damien Rice, the Chemical Brothers, David Gray and the bluesier side of Chris Rea, among many others. Over the full distance, some tracks sit in similar grooves for a little too long, but this is as fine a rock debut as we’ve heard in aeons. Something’s gotta give, indeed.