Cillian Foster - GDC Volume 1

Making an impression on the local scene for some time now, Dubliner Cillian Foster deals in street-smart punk/indie. The songs are strong with little filler – and are performed here with genuine urgency and power by a tight band of musicians. Opener, ‘Wicked Crime’ is crunching, angular-guitar rock in a Franz Ferdinand style; ‘Hold On’ comes across as something Joe Strummer might have done in his Mescaleros phase; and ‘Ballad of Addiction’ boasts pounding Phil Spector-ish ‘Be My Baby’ drums and wall-of-sound guitars on a Brit-Pop-ish tune.
‘Together’ brings elements of Glam Rock (The Sweet) and indie textures replete with a Manics-like chorus to the party. Meanwhile ‘See What Happens’ blends the groove of T Rex’s ‘Children Of The Revolution’ with hints of Mott The Hoople’s ‘All The Young Dudes’ (and more than a flavour of Aslan’s Christy Dignam in the anthemic vocal delivery.) Elsewhere, ‘Off My Chest’ has a definite Arctic Monkeys influence in the vocals department; and ‘Thoughts OfThe Man’ is his own take on the epic rock ballad.
The riff-laden current single ‘Jazz’ is a rocket- fuelled, Clash-flavoured thing with an frantic chorus. Coming in at under three minutes, the race-to-the finish pace belies the fact that it is, in fact, a tender love song. Well worth hearing...