Faces

Pale Blue Jak is the alter ego of County Wicklow singer Neil Byrne and his debut album Faces is an ELO-indebted collection of pop rock numbers, with a few covers thrown in for good measure. A bit of a veteran on the live circuit (and current member of Celtic Thunder, who are adored by legions of Irish-Americans incidentally) in Faces Byrne has made a thoroughly pleasant record. However, the happy clappy sounds of the likes of ‘Mr. Ace’ and ‘Captain Lane’ might make some readers of a less sunnier disposition leap for the stop button like their lives depended on it. While ‘Paperboy’ and ‘D-13’ are well rounded soft rock songs, the covers of Bruno Mars’ ‘Grenade’ and ELO’s ‘Mr Blue Sky’ serve as nothing more than filler. Ultimately this is an excessively sugary slab of wax.