Album Review: Hermitage Green Save Your Soul

Hermitage Green’s may have started out playing trad music, but they have long since left their origins on Limerick’s pub scene behind them. For a start, the individual band members are superb musicians to a man, far beyond any cliched sense of what Irish balladry has been about in the past.

And, using their influences smartly, they have evolved and grown to the extent that they bring a broad world music sensibility to bear on a debut studio album that opens modestly – and is soon reaching for the stars.

Their increasingly epic ambitions are especially obvious on ballads such as ‘Magnificent’ and ‘Make It Better’, as gentle beginnings give way to triumphant and hugely impressive crescendos. The title track – with its raw soul and spiritual influences – is a big one too, with a massive chorus that will work brilliantly in festival arenas. In short, this is the kind of record that could be all over radio like a rash – if programmers here have the smarts to get on board.

Kudos also to Phil Magee’s production, which gives the record a thoroughly modern finish. As the superb ‘My Only Wish’ attests, there’s no lack of ambition here. Hermitage Green are a band with an eye on international expansion. They live just down the road from Shannon. Don’t be too surprised if America rolls out the red carpet very soon.

Key Track: 'My Only Wish'

7/10

Out now on Sony