Consent

It’s hard to believe that The Devlins are only just getting around to releasing their third album. Consent was recorded in many and various places – from Vancouver to the Basque Country – but the guts of it was laid down in the brothers’ home studio in Kinsale, Co Cork.

Colin Devlin’s new found falsetto defines the title track. Sounding more than a little like Prince, the bitter lyrics – “Why you wanna spend some time with some player motherfucker?” – are unexpected with the gentle arrangement. Co-written by Simon Carmody, it’s a classic sweet exterior hiding a stinging centre.

The single ‘Static In The Flow’ – featuring Robert Bell (The Blue Nile) – is another dark tale disguised under a wash of flowing keyboards. Bell also co-produces ‘In Seville’, a dark and haunting Andalusian narrative underpinned by a sexy bass motif.

The Devlins must have called in all sorts of favours on this album. Alan Friedmann (Depeche Mode) is involved in programming on several tracks and the stamp of Mark Hawley and Marcel Van Limbeek, Tori Amos’ production team, is to be felt all over the album.

The music is classic guitar pop – recalling everything from World Party to Peter Sarstedt. In particular the Go Betweens spring to mind – guitar-based pop songs, beautifully rounded but dark at the core. And on ‘Strangest Things’, Colin Devlin demonstrates that he’d be a good candidate to do Ian McCullough on Stars In Their Eyes.

Consent as a whole can be enjoyed on several levels. Easy on the ear, the songs are beautifully arranged and flow easily as a complete piece. But dig deeper and there’s much more going on – subtle sampling, tales of degenerates and dark underbellies. Not groundbreaking but solid stuff nonetheless.