Little Green Cars: Absolute Zero

Dublin’s Little Green Cars are one of the most hotly-tipped Irish acts of this year. The indie alt. folk/country-rock quintet have been already selected for the BBC Sound of 2013 list, but their ambitions are obviously more widescreen.

Having made successful inroads into the US market through appearances at SXSW and Coachella, they’re signed to Glassnote Records, stateside home to Mumford & Sons and Two Door Cinema Club. They’re also managed by former Thrills guitarist Daniel Ryan, a fellow Dub who knows something about breaking the US with American-sounding songs.
So, will their debut album vault them over the pond and break them into the mainstream? It could well do. Absolute Zero was produced by Markus Dravs, who helmed Mumford’s Babel. Dravs has also worked with Björk, Arcade Fire and Coldplay, and he was definitely the right choice of driver for Little Green Cars.
The band’s Stateside ambitions are obvious from even a glance at the track-list. Absolute Zero is bookended by songs that reference classic modern American literature: melancholic rocker ‘Harper Lee’ from last year’s eponymously titled EP opens proceedings and they close with the relatively sparse ‘Goodbye, Blue Monday’, a knowing nod to Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast Of Champions. Somewhere in between is their infectiously hummable radio hit ‘The John Wayne’.
Curiously, 2013’s other Great Irish Hope – Villagers’ Conor J. O’Brien – also cited late SF humorist Vonnegut as an influence on {Awayland}. However, with soul-baring songs about angst and alienation, unrequited lust and love, and other tales of teenage madness, the lyrical themes of AZ seem just as influenced by Judy Blume, JD Salinger and Jeffrey Eugenides.
Vocals are mostly handled by Steve Appleby, whose reedy voice is reminiscent of Neil Young’s or Mercury Rev’s Jonathan Donohue’s: while he couldn’t be described as a brilliant singer, he really has something. The boy-girl harmonies with Faye O’Rourke (who leads on a couple of tracks) work beautifully, but all of the band sing – bassist Donagh Seaver, guitarist Adam O’Regan and drummer Dylan Lynch.
Their playing is tight and polished and Dravs slick production brings out the best in the songs. Musically it varies from jangly pop (‘The John Wayne’), to darkly urgent alt. country (‘My Love Took Me Down To The River To Silence Me’), to traditional folk (‘The Kitchen Floor’, ‘The Consequences of Not Sleeping’), to distorted Eno-esque weirdness (‘Blue & Red’). Melodies aren’t in short supply, and they even occasionally rock out.
It’s going to be fascinating to see just how fast and how far Little Green Cars will travel, but with a debut as accomplished as Absolute Zero for fuel, they may well find themselves pulling up to the bumper of Mumford’s limo sooner than they expect.

Key Track: ‘The John Wayne’