‘Rain Songs’ is the sophomore EP from Cork based singer-songwriter Brian Casey, following his 2013 release ‘Plain Sailing’.

This time around, Casey offers up a handful of hazy, glacial, folk-based songs with enough variety from track to track to hold your attention and enough bitter-sweetness to tug at your heartstrings.

The EP’s greatest strength is its production quality. Entirely self-recorded, it manages to include effortless acoustic arrangements and more lush, grandiose recording practice. On opening track Believe Casey’s frank vocal and acoustic guitar are backed up by tasteful keys and strings, a simple drum beat and gorgeous lap-steel tones.

There is a certain warmth in the clarity of every instrument throughout, as if ‘Rain Songs’ was intended for those indoor duvet days. The EP is like a soundtrack for staring out the window, safe and smug in the knowledge that you’re home and dry.

As if trying to prove a point, Casey’s musicianship is on full show on ‘Rain Songs’. Not only are his vocals most soulful on Times River but they are solely backed by some impressive, intricate finger-picking. Showing a keen sense of song dynamics, Casey allows his songs to build naturally to a climax; favouring a tension-and-release approach rather than a standard soft-loud style. The false crescendo on closing track So Tomorrow is a particularly nice touch.

In terms of themes and tones, the songs seem vague and cryptic. Searching for meaning or anything truly profound or profane amongst anything here may prove fruitless, if not pointless. What is key to ‘Rain Songs’ is how the lyrics sound against their respective backdrops, they’re more so a part of the sound than the point of it all.

With many turning their hand on this style – see Ed Sheeran, Passenger, etc. – ‘Rain Songs’ may feel a little MOR, but it makes for some easy listening and does display a songwriter hitting his stride.