Album Review: Paddy Hanna, Oylegate

Paddy Hanna’s fifth album, Oylegate, came into existence after the artist pushed through a period of doubt and “embraced the strange beauty of uncertainty”.

It’s notable that uncertainty has always lain at the heart of Hanna’s music. The Dublin-based baroque-pop songwriter has kept listeners on their toes with each new LP release, offering us something markedly different every time he’s come out of the studio.

But no matter what he does, there’s always a sense of playfulness and joy in Paddy’s music, which gives all of his songs a pleasing sheen. Such is the case with Oylegate, an album whose title track comes with the cryptic description: “Low rent fuel, caffeine of all shapes, the midpoint of hope and despair, engine still running at Oylegate Station.”

Oylegate sees Paddy refract real-life malaise – artistic woes, financial worries, etc – through the trippy lens of retro-pop. The Soviet-era sci-fi film Solaris served as a guiding influence, and it's likely the reason why Oylegate sounds, at times, like a bizarre ‘80s film soundtrack.

On tracks like ‘No Sleep For Life’ and ‘Tuscon Arizona’ Paddy shows he’s fully clued into the emotional possibilities of bursting synth and earnest lyrics, while tracks such as ‘Harry Dean’ feel big in the way that the best power ballads do.

8/10

Out now