Irish acoustic singer Duke Special's album Oh Pioneer review
Irish singer-songwriter, Duke Special is back with his seventh studio album packed full of atmospheric summery tones.
I have to confess, when I saw this pop into my inbox I read it as Duke Spirit – a wonderfully dark and edgy British indie band with a sexy lady singer. When I put this album on and hear the soft, smoky vocals of a bloke, I was a little dismayed and exasperated by my own incompetence.
But I’m over that now and what I found was a lovely little album perfect for listening to while sat in the garden with a pot of freshly ground coffee (yes, I’m that pretentious). Every track is steeped in melody. A beautiful, soothing piano accents every track from the opener of Stargazers of The World Unite (a homage to The Smiths maybe, although if you’re expecting to hear Johnny Marr’s ripping guitar you’ll be disappointed) to the tenth a final track Always Been There.
For me the stand out track is Snakes In The Grass – it’s tainted with electro and reminds me of a Dickensian musical. It makes me feel like I’m in a theatre-pub in the East End surround by well-to-do men in top hats and buxom ladies with heaving bosoms. Massively theatrical and gothic, I was close to drawing on a pencil moustache.
For an artist that describes himself has endlessly inventive, I found this album predictable and most of it sounded like it was different take of the same song. His vocal fails to excite and although the multi-layered piano, percussion and guitar set him apart from his contemporaries such as Ed Sheeran and Newton Faulkner (remember him?); he’s very much in the same genre of dull.
First published 31/08/2012
I have to confess, when I saw this pop into my inbox I read it as Duke Spirit – a wonderfully dark and edgy British indie band with a sexy lady singer. When I put this album on and hear the soft, smoky vocals of a bloke, I was a little dismayed and exasperated by my own incompetence.
But I’m over that now and what I found was a lovely little album perfect for listening to while sat in the garden with a pot of freshly ground coffee (yes, I’m that pretentious). Every track is steeped in melody. A beautiful, soothing piano accents every track from the opener of Stargazers of The World Unite (a homage to The Smiths maybe, although if you’re expecting to hear Johnny Marr’s ripping guitar you’ll be disappointed) to the tenth a final track Always Been There.
For me the stand out track is Snakes In The Grass – it’s tainted with electro and reminds me of a Dickensian musical. It makes me feel like I’m in a theatre-pub in the East End surround by well-to-do men in top hats and buxom ladies with heaving bosoms. Massively theatrical and gothic, I was close to drawing on a pencil moustache.
For an artist that describes himself has endlessly inventive, I found this album predictable and most of it sounded like it was different take of the same song. His vocal fails to excite and although the multi-layered piano, percussion and guitar set him apart from his contemporaries such as Ed Sheeran and Newton Faulkner (remember him?); he’s very much in the same genre of dull.
First published 31/08/2012
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