When the Irishman toured Australia for the first time off the back of his debut Early In The Morning in April 2012 he could barely keep his eyes open.
If early impressions of follow-up Post Tropical are to suggest anything it’s that while McMorrow is still a delicate soul he’s certainly far less terrified than he used to be.
Adding synth textures into your core sound is now so overdone, that it’s soon to be out of fashion, and so McMorrow making that break away from his traditional breezy folk style is still brave enough to warrant a mention.
The electronic shades on ‘Cavalier’ and ‘Look Out’ are reminiscent of James Blake without something original or edgy, just as the thumping drum beat on ‘Red Dust’, country twang on ‘The Lakes’ and brass on ‘Gold’ all demonstrate a significant musical expansion.
But – and fans will be thankful for this – the resulting easy listening effect is still the same as his debut.
With the array of sounds that are used to compose Post Tropical it’s quite a feat that McMorrow’s pristine vocals are able to string the record together as something other than inconsistent.
As McMorrow expresses on Red Dust “sometimes my hands they don’t feel like my own, I need someone to love, someone to hold” or as he sings on ‘All Points’, “I was in the dark”.
Needless to say at times McMorrow’s added dosage of schmaltz can be a little too much for some but Post Tropical succeeds on two basic fronts.
The songs are significantly stronger than that of Early In The Morning, and the sheer level of sweetness and euphoria contained in each song comes down like a crashing wave of emotion on the listener. So much so, that it’s hard to deny.
It’s far too early to herald Post Tropical as signifying anything about what 2014 will bring in music, but it will be no huge proclamation to declare that James Vincent McMorrow has provided a pleasantly surprising release of the year to come.
Listen to ‘Gold’ below:
