Artist – Album: Johnny Flynn – A Larum
Released: 26th
May 2008
Sounds Like: Way better than bloody Mumford & Sons
I’m in Nottingham today for the annual Dot-to-Dot festival,
check me out! Now played out over a long weekend in dozens of venues across
three different cities, the festival began here 8 years ago at just three
clubs. Since then it has garnered a great reputation as a place to see loads of
great new bands and potentially spot the next big thing – the list of bands to
have played it is like a who’s who of buzzed about indie and pop acts of the
last few years: The Drums, Ed Sheeran, Darwin Deez, Hurts, Guillemots, Mystery
Jets, Los Campesinos!, Beach House, Friendly Fires, Spiritualised, Bloc Party,
Hercules and Love Affair, Ellie Goulding, British Sea Power, Kate Nash,
Alphabeat and Noah and the Whale. Who’ll be the next one? The 1975? Tom Odell?
Dry the River? Wave Machines? I haven’t got a clue, I’ve barely heard of any of
them...
Speaking of obscure indie acts of note, today’s album is by
Johnny Flynn, a star of the revitalised folk rock scene. His highly literate
wordplay, distinctive, olde-worlde voice and energetically plucked acoustic
guitar mark him out as one to watch. The stomping ‘The Box’ contains enough interesting variations, screeching
violins, and a catchy enough chanted chorus to warrant repeated listens (in
fact, Cartoonist David Rees listened to it non-stop on itunes, in a bid to
drive the average price per listen down to one cent). ‘The Wrote & The Writ’ is smart but not smart-arsed and contains
the lovely line “don’t say in a letter what you can’t in my ear”; it sounds
like a lost song from the original highpoint of folk in the sixties. ‘Tickle Me Pink’ is a bouncing hoe-down
with an infectious chorus. And that's just the first three songs.
Johnny Flynn remains unknown enough that he could be playing
in Nottingham (possibly headlining) today as a ‘could be-‘ . On the evidence of this, it shouldn't take too long for him to join that illustrious
list of ‘actually are-’s.
Albumaday... rating: 6/10
1. The
Box – 3:36
2. The
Wrote & The Writ – 4:07
3. Tickle
Me Pink – 3:11
4. Brown
Trout Blues – 5:02
5. Eyeless
in Holloway – 4:05
6. Shore
to Shore – 4:23
7. Cold
Bread – 3:29
8. Wayne
Rooney – 4:18
9. Leftovers
– 4:16
10. Sally
– 3:35
11. Hong
Kong Cemetery – 4:51
12. Tunnels
– 3:08
13. All
the Dogs are Lying Down – 4:13
14. Shore
to Shore (Reprise) – 1:27
Listen to ‘Tickle Me
Pink’: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8I2hzMCiNH4
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