Declan O'Rourke - 'Since Kyabram'

The sound on this debut LP is one that others take aeons trying to engender, and still manage to miss the mark by a country mile. From the opening intricacies of No Place to Hide to the Dubliners-esque musings of Marrying the Sea, O'Rourke's vocal amalgamation of rawness with sterilized beauty, ripples round your ears, avoiding cheap clichés with all the agility of a Caribbean limbo champion, and then nestles inside your mind, leaving you genuinely affected. True, there are a plethora of earnest singer songwriters (many of Celtic descent) on the airwaves today, but few come close to emulating 'Since Kyabram'. Lyrically, it's a blend of lovestruck naivety and comforting anecdotes, which, quite frankly, shit all over Blunt, Johnson et al. It's difficult to consign this album to an era, it could just as well have been penned 30 years ago, which is why it may survive for years to come. (Finbarr Bermingham)