The World’s Not Round

Neither folk nor pop, blues nor rock, Colm Quearney’s debut album is a strangely colourless beast.

On The World’s Not Round , the ex-Lir man operates in the nebulous terrain between genres. While this kind of sonic adventuring can be incredibly productive for some artists – think Beck, Gorillaz and Ani DiFranco – over the course of ten tracks, Quearney succeeds in sounding only confused.

His best moments occur at the beginning of the record. On the opening track, ‘Reckless’, Quearney blends a pleasantly poppy melody with the album’s strongest guitar hook. A little later, on ‘Riches Of The Poor’, the artist uses hand-clapping and acoustic guitar to generate a gently swinging effect.

Even these songs, though, are overshadowed by the record’s poor production values. Quearney’s voice seems submerged beneath the music, often becoming so faint that his lyrics are swallowed up entirely.

The album is further hampered by pointless instrumental filler and tunes that seem always on the verge of going somewhere, without actually having the guts to get up and leave.

Still, on this debut offering, Quearney does show some potential. Perhaps it might be realised next time.