Water Off A Duck's Back

This is Ronan O Snodaigh’s fifth studio album, and for it the Kila singer has gathered an impressive band of accomplices, including Liam Ó Maonlaí on keyboards and vocals, and Steve Cooney, whose dexterous guitar is a highlight. As the title implies, this is O Snodaigh in full-on skittish mode, shaking off the recession with scathing observations and no little humour, his fellow musicians catching his sense of fun and turning in one of the most good-humoured albums we’ve heard in a while.
The title track sticks it to our political establishment for their venality, with cutting observations like “lost the country billions, water off a duck’s back” nailing it in one. There’s a neat rock ’n’ roll feel to ‘Forget About Everything’, and the ghost of Lou Reed’s “coloured girls” hang around ‘Bigger and Better’. They switch on the electricity to help ‘Round To Go Round’ rock it up, and there’s an upbeat finger-clicking mood to ‘Look To The Light’. The folksy prayer-song ‘Matthew Mark’ upsets the mood, although O Snodaigh’s raw vocal evokes Robert Wyatt as his most innocent, and ‘Terrible Beauty’, links our past to our present woes.
With notable exceptions, (Damien Dempsey, Jinx Lennon, Eleanor McEvoy, Jimi Cullen, and perhaps a couple more), our current writers seem to be in denial about the demons unleashed by our criminal establishment. Thankfully, O Snodaigh has faced those demons for us – and laughed in their faces.
KEY TRACK: ‘WATER OFF A DUCK’S BACK’