Recorded sporadically over the last few years in various hallways, basements and bedrooms in cities as far afield as Montreal, New York, London and Dublin, Printer Clips is an album of duets written and co-performed by Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan.
He’s chosen his female vocal foils wisely for these nine folk-pop tinged songs. The Irish singers are Lisa Hannigan, Cathy Davey, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Gemma Hayes and Danielle Harrison, with Martha Wainwright, Joan As Policewoman, Julia Stone and Amy Millan flying the international flag (apparently PJ Harvey and Emmylou Harris declined to participate).
Featuring acoustic guitar, piano and violin, slow and mournful opening track ‘Apparatchik’ (with Hannigan) sets the intimately downbeat mood: “House always wins/ So don’t cry...” With the exceptions of Americana-styled ‘The Cartographer’ (with Doyle Kennedy) and ‘Mrs Winchester’ (with Wainwright), the pace never gets particularly lively. Which is fine over a relatively short 35-minute album in which each track segues smoothly into the next.
A couple of these songs will already be familiar to Noonan fans, though not in these guises. ‘Vapour Trail’ previously appeared on The Cake Sale album, but Joan As Policewoman’s plaintive vocals give it a new twist. As do Julia Stone’s on the superb version of ‘Some Surprise’.
While it probably won’t cheer many listeners up (though ‘The Dolphins & The World’s Tallest Man’ with Davey might raise a smile), this is a highly captivating side-project from one of Ireland’s most talented songwriters.