Album Review: George Adequate, Reasonable Things

“Existentially exhausted middle-aged musician seeks like-minded people to share misery… and maybe more...”

So writes George Adequate about his rather marvellous debut album, produced by Chris Barry. Begat it may be from misery, but misery it ain’t. Indeed, it may yet prove a sleeper hit of the summer.

Take ‘Love Spread on Everything’: oh man, what a track! Despite itself, it’s a lo-fi melodic, jangle-pop gem that absolutely grips you in its beautiful swirl. Or take the exquisite flowing guitar line on ‘Up & Down’, with George singing “I just want to be brave like I was when I was brave.” You immediately want to root for him.

Aye, there’s dark matter here – the heartbreak on ‘Life Seems Strange’ is almost suffocating, but contradictorily, it’s so damn catchy that it reaches for the heavens. Ditto ‘Where Will We Dance?’. Elsewhere, the new-wave punk of ‘Something That We Know’, the headrush of ‘Where They Can’t Find Us’, and the confessional ‘Hot Cold Water’ all flex the record even further.

Fascinatingly, the bones of these sonic gems have been, until now, squirrelled away on a hard drive along with hundreds of other demos of the wonderfully mysterious Mr. Adequate. And they are all wrapped in the most compelling artwork – a bearded musician playing a lute from a little boat, beside a vast, hirsute, horned monster among roiling purple-black waves – which ‘Shipwrecked’ and its line “I’ve grown old in the time its taken” perhaps soundtracks. Mighty stuff.

9/10

George Adequate launches his new album at The Grand Social, Dublin, on Thursday, July 16. Tickets are available here.