Iain Shaw - May You Live All the Days of Your Life

 

With a title like May You Live All the Days of Your Life, Iain Shaw’s new LP was always going to be a little fey. Knocked out in four hours, the Isle of Lewis-born singer-songwriter’s latest offering is a twee-plaid interpretation of some truly classic cuts. On paper, it's a curiosity that threatens to escalate as an abomination. Yet Shaw’s adaptations of The Ramones’ Blitzkreig Bop and Franz Ferdinand’s Take Me Out draw a startling deftness of touch from numbers better known for their dancefloor packing heroism. Some efforts inevitably fall short; the likes of Blondie’s Talking on the Telephone and Johnny Cash’s I Still Miss Someone lack their original verve and are escorted down a well of vapidity by Shaw’s earnest intone. But, rather than coming across as an open mic night connoisseur, Iain Shaw proves himself more than capable of adding fresh flavour to some refined vintage. [Billy Hamilton]