Johnny Flynn - A Larum
Wouldn’t be out of place on the Fence label
Sometimes you hear a record where, at the beginning, you think ‘oh dear’, but by the end you’ve become entirely converted. Johnny Flynn plays an upbeat variant of folk tinged with the banjo twang of a country hoedown on occasion. This slightly barbecued flavour is not normally to my taste, but after a few tracks, the adeptness with which it is applied makes for an enjoyable listen – the first couple of tracks are probably the weakest as well, so stick with it. With plucked guitar and fiddle front and centre, this album wouldn’t be out of place on the Fence label, but the sound is set apart enough that it doesn’t come across as a facsimile. If nothing else, any album with a track called Wayne Rooney including the line “primordial soup of a man”, has got to be worth a listen for lyrical inventiveness alone. [Matt Gollock]