Reviews
Artist: Fiach
Album: So I
Label: Marcella
Tracks: 11
Website:http://www.fiach.net
Whilst this album has been out for just over a year, it managed to pass me by at the time, but I'm really pleased that a copy of "So I" dropped through the letterbox, following a conversation at the B&B at the recent Cambridge Folk Festival.
The album is the debut release from Dublin singer/songwriter Fiach. In his native Ireland, the album be4came record of the week with broadcaster RTE Radio 1 as well as gaining great reviews on all sorts of other media and it's easy to hear why.
"So I" is a big album, with a big sound, it feels radio friendly with a hint of compromise to get there, Fiach seems to be a natural creator of big acoustic pop/rock songs and then delivers them with a big powerful vocal that says as much with the sound as it does with the words.
There are some really strong themes covered in the album. He doesn't gloss over some f the darker parts of Ireland's recent history. "Too Many Years" hits the Catholic Church child abuse issue straight on, expressing as much disgust for those that covered it up as much as those that carried out the abuse.
Interestingly he also draws on how the pursuit of the guilty has continued to draw attention away from the innocent that were abused, who seem to continue to struggle to get the help they need. It's not a track that I expected to hear when I first played the album, but as it moved from one well written song to the next, I came to realise that here was a songwriter that seems to genuinely influenced by all aspects of the life that goes on in and around him.
He seems to be a man that listens with two ears and speaks with one, strong and powerful, voice. The melodies, resplendent with rock and blues touches, simply add to the feeling that Fiach is an artist that knows what he wants from his music and what he wants his music to take to the listener.
Well worth checking out. Rumour is that he'll be in the studio very soon for a sophomore album in 2012, I'm already looking forward to it.
Neil King