Jollity, Pugwash’s third album, is easily Walsh’s most accomplished to date, his compositions fleshed out by some sterling strings and boisterous brass, the latter courtesy of the hugely talented Eric Matthews.
In a parallel universe, Pugwash mainmain Thomas Walsh is a living legend, regularly enjoying heavy radio rotation the world over, massive record sales and as widely respected as somebody like Ian Broudie, Neil Finn or Stephen Malkmus. In our world, however, somehow Walsh’s gorgeously melodic songs about love and loss have slipped under the collective radar. Always critically acclaimed, his compositions have bizarrely failed to create more than a minor ripple in the general consciousness.
I say bizarrely, because Walsh’s tunes are some of the most infectiously radio-friendly to come from this or any other island. True, he is sometimes too much in thrall to the Lennon-McCartney school of songwriting (‘This Could Be Good’), but if you’re going to emulate anybody, it may as well be the masters of the genre. Take the sheer exuberance of ‘Something New’ or the ridiculously catchy recent radio single and album opener, ‘It’s Nice To Be Nice’: I doubt you’ll hear a more perfect three minutes of finely-polished tunesmithery anywhere else this year.
Jollity, Pugwash’s third album, is easily Walsh’s most accomplished to date, his compositions fleshed out by some sterling strings and boisterous brass, the latter courtesy of the hugely talented Eric Matthews. Matthews isn’t the only well-known collaborator here, however: former XTC guitarist Dave Gregory contributes a veritable orchestra of instrumentation, as well as arranging strings for the impressive ‘Rose In A Garden Of Weeds’ and the mesmerising ‘I Want You Back In My Life’. Walsh’s other musical helpers include well-known Dublin-based musician and songwriter Duncan Maitland and Keith Farrell, whose other credits include Las Vegas Basement and Mundy.
‘Black Dog’, no relation to the Led Zeppelin anthem of the same name, is a gloriously upbeat mantra, helped no end by a shimmering brass section. Our hero also does a nice line in balladry, on the bittersweet ‘Poles Together’ and the lyrically superb ‘Waltz #714’. Then there’s the thirty-something reflection of ‘Even I’ and the disarmingly simple ‘Lullaby #1’ to be getting along with, before the closing ‘Anchor’ (co-written with Andy Partridge of XTC) comes along and finishes matters off on a harmony-laden, soaring paean to love found.
Hopefully, Jollity will be the album to align all our parallel universes and make Thomas Walsh as rich and famous as his plain-as-the-nose-on-your-face talent deserves.
Thomas Walsh was the underappreciated genius of Irish rock until his Duckworth Lewis Method hook-up with Neil Hannon put him on the map. One Ivor Novello nomination later, his band Pugwash are signed to a major and he’s receiving fan mail from ELO’s Jeff Lynne. As he gears up for his date at the inaugural Homegrown festival at INEC Killarney, the songwriting wizard talks to Olaf Tyaransen.
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Just a few days before the release of their much anticipated fifth studio album, Pugwash play Whelan's this Thursday, August 11.
Read More The Irish pop rocker has been added as the support act to the IT Crowd’s Berry and The Bluetones lead singer Morriss tomorrow night.
Read More The Olympus Sound will be with us in August.
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Pugwash’s Thomas Walsh is like a dog with numerous tails this week after signing a five-year UK deal with APE, the label run by XTC legend Andy Partridge who the Pugs have collaborated with in the past.
Read More Pugwash and Liam Ó Maonlaí are both set to play this year’s Ranelagh Arts Festival, which takes place in the Dublin suburb from September 23.
Read More In the run up to the July release of Pugwash’s new single the band will play two acoustic sets in Whelan’s.
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Life has never been so sweet for Pugwash's Thomas Walsh with a cracking new album, a song on an A-List Hollywood movie, and a cricket-loving pal to play with.
Read More An all-star cast graced the Whelan’s stage last night for the Pugwash Eleven Modern Antiquities album launch.
Read More Thomas Walsh forges chamber pop beauty. Journalist runs out of superlatives.
Read More The mighty Pugwash will make a rare live appearance on March 27 in Whelan’s
Read More An acoustic set from Pugwash's Thomas Walsh (pictured) features among the acts for this month's 'Shoestring Collective' arts & music night in Dublin.
Read More Pugwash are justifiably chuffed this week after hearing that one of the songs from their Almanac album, ‘Anyone Who Asks’, has made it on to the soundtrack of the new Ed Norton, Colin Farrell and Jon Voight movie, Pride & Glory.
Read More Thomas “Pugwash” Walsh has put together a supergroup of sorts (Neil Hannon, someone from XTC). Writing a decent Christmas single isn’t the easiest of tasks and, while this probably won’t end up as one of the standards, the cheeriness behind it all shines through. A suitably uplifting ditty that showcases the breezy approach to songwriting that Walsh makes his own all year round.
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Dublin favourites Pugwash are to release their second single from the critically acclaimed album Jollity.
Read More Accolades don’t come much higher than being asked to meet your idols, but that’s what happened to Dublin pop-festish band Pugwash when Beach Boys legend Brian Wilson got a load of their new single.
Read More Tales of Thomas Walsh’s exquisite, Beatles-esque songwriting bent have already been well-documented on these pages, and this latest single comes up trumps. Walsh is about two degrees of separation (literally) from the likes of Air, Beck, Paul McCartney and Aimee Mann, and boy does it show. Laden with summery strings and plodding with an endearing strain of psychedelia, this single brings to mind the cheerful, sanguine likes of the Beach Boys. It’s nice to be nice alright, but it’s even better to be brilliant.
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While the word pop currently raises the hackles of anyone who considers themselves a music fan, Pugwash’s Thomas Walsh, whose music is influenced by the move, XTC and the Kinks, is attempting to set the record straight
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Beatles-fixated guitar bands may not be exactly what the world is waiting for right now but local lads, Pugwash, carry it off with such aplomb that it’s hard not to succumb to their charms.
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