Gorgeous and Bright

Thom Moore: “Gorgeous and Bright” (Starc Records)

Although Gorgeous And Bright features the playing of the likes of Máirtín O’Connor, Cormac Breatnach and Máire Breatnach, and the backing vocals here and there of Brian Kennedy, Seamus Begley and Mary Black, it isn’t really an Irish traditional or folk album, at least in the sense that it doesn’t sound like The Chieftains or Planxty.

In fact, musically it has more in common with J.J. Cale and the title track itself, believe it or not, especially conjures up comparisons with the more indigenous arrangements of Los Lobos’ first two excellent records. As it happens, this Celtic-Latin link is corroborated on the penultimate track, ‘San Carlos Water’, a melancholic reflection on how a good woman ‘with child’, so to speak, was left all alone by the death of her man on The Belgrano, the sinking of which was one of the most notorious outrages in the Falklands War. ‘Mano a mano, venguémos Belgrano, las islas Malvinas serran!” cries Thom in his best Spanish.

The opener, ‘Now High, Now Low, Now Found’ has a Crock of Gold-like journeyman feel to it as it recounts the way in which haphazard misfortunes transform people’s lives. While, to go the full circle, the closing number, ‘The Babe Inside’, dedicated to Jennifer Warnes, is a beautiful piano, violin and cello arranged minor gem that imparts precious wisdom about the cradle and the grave.

The high point, though, is the sublime ‘The Answer (Vot Otvyét)’. Like another magnificent mood-opener ‘Love On Her Own’, we are told that ‘The Answer’ is written for Lyubov Koroleva-Moore. It has a question and answer form, and the latter is sung in Russian. With lyrics like “Landscape was spread with snow; rain came sluicing, low. Wish her heart the same, my tears the rain: sweep away ‘no’.” This piano, guitar, mandolin and double bass-accompanied song is unmistakably a thing of rare poetic beauty, sung with infinite tenderness.

Some of the rockier tunes, such as ‘The Navigator’ and ‘Comes The Comrade’ bring you back down to earth a little and are probably more commonplace, albeit offering a necessary and logical change of pace and tone. But ‘Queen Love’ restores Gorgeous and Bright to a dizzying height and, as much as any other melody, bears witness to Thom Moore’s meticulous and interestingly elliptical and alluring lyrical style.

Gorgeous And Bright is a delightful surprise. If you’re looking for something a little quieter and more considered, it will provide welcome respite from the strident self-importance of more mainstream rock. A sublunary disc indeed.

• Patrick Brennan