Horsebreaker Star

GRANT McLENNAN: “Horsebreaker Star” (Beggars Banquet)

Though never really getting the adulation he deserves, Grant McLennan, nonetheless, is regarded in some quarters as one of the most gifted singer/songwriters of his generation, not least in this country, with everyone from Dónal Dineen to Stephen Ryan, literally, singing his praises.

McLennan’s reputation was establishes during his time in the Go-Betweens, who – along with The Stars Of Heaven – were one of the greatest bands of the last decade.

The connection is an apt one, as both of these bands boasted not one but two songwriters of true genius. Indeed, the heart-breaking demise of both bands coincided almost to the day, causing some to speculate that their entwined, tragic fate was engraved in the stars.

It was almost as if both bands buckled under the strain of an over-abundance of talent: they were too good for their own good.

But if there is any consolation to be gleaned from this, it is that obsessives, like myself, get to hear double the amount from our favourite artists – given that each of the four musicians to whom I referred, have embarked on separate musical odysseys. Now I can go and see The Revenants and The Sewing Room, while in the same week, I am presented with new albums from Robert Forster and Grant McLennan: spoiled rotten or what?

Horsebreaker Star is McLennan’s third and fourth solo album (it’s a double!) and the first thing you’ll want to know about it is how it compares to his previous solo work: the excellent Fireboy and Watershed LPs.

Well, you know what you’re gonna get when you listen to one of his albums: good, solid songs based around a deceptively easy structure but which carry within them all the deftness of touch of a master.

McLennan is the man who put the tune into Tunisia and the words into Wordsworth. ‘No Peace In The Palace’ encapsulates all these qualities; it’s a gentle ballad that is not afraid of its own sensitivity:

“The outside world is a storm/The inner one’s deformed/Branches crack on the window/I’m trying to keep warm.”

His evocation of the dark underside of the human psyche and the nascent neuroses which it spawns, is something which many songwriters have tried to emulate but which few have achieved with any conviction.

I hate to mention The Stars Of Heaven again (okay, I love doing it!) but the chiming guitars and angelic string arrangements of the single ‘Don’t You Cry’, coupled with its complementary love-lorn lyrics, all go to make a song that would not sound out of place on the Star’s Speak Slowly album – which is about the best compliment I could possibly offer.

‘Coming Up For Air’ is another gem, a lush luxurious soundscape which subtly engulfs the listener into McLennanland – a place to which no-one in their right mind would willingly go but which, once you’re there, is impossible to leave: “Remember you talked about a legacy/How you went through pride, relief to liberty/It’s just so hard to name your next-of-kin/Too many red flags and safety pins.”

‘Girl In A Beret’ contains some classic McLennan lines that manage to simultaneously be both an exercise in self-flagellation and an underhand jibe at the inflated expectations of one of his girlfriends: “Meet my friend/She wants her life to be a film/Loves the lights/Says that I can’t be in her film/But I’ve got to change/Got to act more like my age.”

I could go on all night about this album. Save me the trouble and check out the man and the melodies for yourself.

• Nicholas G. Kelly