Early In The Morning [CD]

Listening to the Irish band Villagers supporting the wonderful Elbow the other evening I was reminded of the fine talent that continues to stream out of Ireland and in particular the ability of artists from the Emerald Isle to produce debut albums of such assuredness and maturity that they really must make others green with envy. If you have yet to hear "The year of the Jackal" you should beat a path on to Amazon post haste where you will also find "Early in the morning" from the new Dublin troubadour James Vincent McMorrow awaiting to press your aural delight buttons. A slight pause however at this point since before going into detail there is a need to address the Bon Iver issue. This is a recent phenomenon which sees mostly male artists employing a propensity to beat a retreat into some desolate rural hinterland in a hastily constructed log cabin and pour out deep melancholy in their wretchedness. McMorrow has partially done this by recording this album near the sea in a cottage somewhere off the Irish coast, that said the smell of the seaweed and the stiff Irish breeze has combined to produce songs of very sombre delight but also an underpinning soulfulness on a number of tracks which keeps the wrist slitting elements down to bare minimum. In addition to prove that he has a real sense of humour McMorrow has recently produced a truly unique cover of that highly irritating pop imp Willow Smith's ode to luxurious locks, "Whip My Hair" which can be found all over the music blogs and is undeniably great.

"Early in the morning" has been released in the UK for well over a year but on the basis of "if at first you dont succeed" McMorrows label is giving it another shot which is commendable since this music deserves to be noticed. The album mixes a range of West Coast influenced songs like the beautiful "This old dark machine" which skips along at a fine pace and shows that McMorrow has chart ambitions. Opener "If I had a boat" does owe some debt to Justin Vernon at least in the first 30 seconds but McMorrow produces a shimmering vocal and a spare background and turns it into a special song with echoes of that old curmudgeon Van Morrison. A particular highlight is the intense "Down the burning ropes" with its almost Jeff Buckley intonations while the excellent "Sparrow and the wolf" edges into that territory currently occupied by Johnny Flynn. Possibly the best song on this album is the slowly building "From the woods" which builds to a stirring climax and shows that McMorrow is very much his own man in key compositions. A couple of tracks on here such as the title track are perhaps a bit to close to the Bon Iver ghostly register aesthetic for comfort but lets cut James Vincent McMorrow some slack since in the majority of songs on this album his muse leads him to produce some genuinely tender songs with vivid acoustic textures which makes for a fine debut.

Sometimes a voice comes along that is the aural equivalent of walking into a crumbling old church. Within the first ten seconds of James Vincent Mcmorrow's debut album you will feel as if you have discovered a ruined cathedral in a city's back streets. His ragged falsetto is hard to describe without resort to cliche: the throbbing melancholy, the aching hope of love, it's all there.

Those first ten seconds will immediately make you think of Bon Iver, and whether this is conscious imitation or not, reading the bumpf inside the CD will inform you that this album was also created in a lonely place (although perhaps not quite so lonely!). Opener If I Had a Boat ('Once I had a dream/it died long before') sounds pretty desperate, but then it's followed by, 'Now I'm pointed north/hoping for the shore.' So maybe a little faith in the future then.

However, as the album progresses and the Bon Iver voice gives way to some Jeff Buckley inflections, one thought undermines all the beauty: take that voice away and some of these songs are ever-so-slightly - I struggle to say it - pedestrian. The same old chords can be made to sound new again, but sometimes they can sound very, very old without imaginative arrangement. With a normal voice, some of these songs might sound a little repetitive.

But then From the Woods arrives, a song that really does sound like it was written by a man on the run - but from what? It's brilliant and terrifying, and reminds me of the first time I heard Violent Femmes' Country Death Song: it's an Irish backwoods horror movie sung by an angel.

So not quite five stars then. This album does not stand up to the debuts of the performers mentioned above, but the good news is that the raw talent is definitely there. There is more to come, I'm sure of it. James, if you're reading this: well done, brilliant, next time have more fun with that amazing voice of yours, and maybe consider a producer that will push you into places you've never been before. But know that you're on repeat, and you can't ask for more than that.

The c.d came quickly in the post, I'd firstly checked out the tracks on you tube and enjoyed a brief listen to each one,the videos were also very interesting and artistic.
The album is very well produced and the melodies are beautiful. The songs lyrically poetic and their compossitions often unusual, the harmonies and double tracking stood out as something unpredictable yet lovely. Mc Morrow's voice is gentle and haunting, but has a underlying strength breaking through in 'The Sparrow and the Wolf'. I found his falsetto becoming a little wearing the further into the album I went. I find that I only really get properly excited about 3 tracks on the album. The rest are beautiful and 'nice' to listen to, but as a whole it didn't stand out to me as much as the first track I ever heard, on the radio did, grabbing my attention resulting in me searching out his name months afterwards. 'The sparrow and the wolf' is the stand out track to me, ear grabbingly fabulous and has the flavour of 'Mumford and Sons' energy and passionate lyrics about it. I'm really glad I bought the album, but unfortunately over all it didn't seduce me as I initally hoped it would.