Time for a bit o' background on this guy, he's a twenty-something fella from somewhere up the north of Ireland. He started making music in the form of web records which were stuck up on his website and some tunes which he flung on his myspace. He's made one full record, Yonder! Calliope?. He has since moved to London town and is making music, writing books and gettin a post graduate degree. Happy that you know all about him, his life and his family etc.?
So what makes Mr. McMullan different to the bog standard singer-songwriter which is singing down yer local pub? Well for one, how many songwriters down your pub talk of, "cum soaked sidewalks"? Well if the answer is plenty of them then you go to one heck of a strange pub and quite honestly I'd rather avoid it.
Where was I? Ah yes well here are the facts on this album: McMullan has both a unique singing voice and a unique lyrical voice. Lyrically I've never heard a thing like it, in a unique way they marry the works of both Shane MacGowan and Billy Bragg and perhaps a little bit of something else, something from left field like the works of Lady GaGa or something else as odd and seemingly out of place yet fitting in rather well. To put it another way he gives us a sense of bar room poetry: love, loss, lassies, singing, dancing, drinking, swearing but with a little something extra, a little extra emotion chucked in for good measure.
There's elements of punk and folk merging with perfect ease. You have the sharpest riffs (like on "Blue From Black"), you have gorgeous melancholy ballads ("Song Just For Tonight," "Sinead In Savage Purple") and chucked in for good measure you have brilliant wit(Go Fuck Yourself).
I can also safely say that when it comes to instrumentation that this album is pretty damn spot on. The bursts of echoey discordant piano placed here and there in the likes of "City, Country, City" fit in with the tone and feel of the album as a whole. Indeed the odd noises shot through out give a great feel to the album and the ghostly effect brought by the slide in "Go Fuck Yourself" is wonderful. McMullan doesn't hide behind his instrumentation as on "She Is Waking," it's just him and his guitar and a well written song. I won't lie and say that Aaron has the greatest voice I've heard but who cares?! It suits the mood, the music, the songs and I've heard far far worse. It might be a dealbreaker for you though and if that's the case I honestly feel you'd be missing out quite a bit in terms of the quality of the songwriting.
To say the least, this is a favourite album of mine and has some of my favourite lyrics like, "Singer fuck sake sing for us," "Reading De Sade on April evenings with the dusk accentuating every syllable" and my personal favourite, "If I was sober, mind, you wouldn't have a chance"
This is the tip of an iceberg and with a new album in the works I have the distinct feeling it'll be cracker.
If any you get this album or listen to anything off it or by the artist mentioned, tell me. I'd be interested to hear your opinion. You can get a few free tracks off the record label website. Till we meet again friends, I bid you adieu!
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