The Butterfly Album

Better known nowadays for his work with The Shoos, Scott Maher makes his return to solo endeavours with ‘The Butterfly Album’; his third album and a sonic departure from his previous two efforts. ‘The Butterfly Album’ is based around Maher’s nimbly plucked nylon guitar and simple messages about love and backed up by double bass, cello and syncopated brass.

Opening with an effortless ode to his girlfriend in Butterfly, Maher sounds not unlike the late Elliott Smith both vocally and instrumentally; favouring simple acoustics with light ambience and a nice layer of vocal harmony as embellishment. Butterfly is immediately followed by I Don’t Fit In; a nod to the songwriting style of Sir Paul McCartney, a playful song that explores themes of schoolboy isolation. Sir Paul being a clear influence on Maher, tracks Touchdown and If We Were Lovers display a clear knowledge of classic, jaunty pop sensibility and saccharine sentimentality.

Though the syrupiness and simplicity is at times to its detriment, ‘The Butterfly Album’ is not without its highlights. Macu Pichu is a Latin-tinged number about stalking your ex on Facebook while she’s travelling in South America and you’re stuck in Dublin traffic, it’s refrain punctuated with irresistibly punchy brass lines; a trope revisited on Every Colour In My Sky which sounds more in line with the blue eyed soul style, underpinned with some bright, funky electric guitar licks, sounding not unlike an early Dexy’s effort.

The album’s ultimate masterstroke however comes in the heart-wrenchingly unfeigned, emotional First Dance, a wedding proposal three years in the making. Opening with stark finger picked guitar, Maher sings “My body’s ready / My head is right / My heart wants you”, before gradually being joined by climbing strings and single, sustained, dramatic piano chords as he urges his beloved to grant him “every dance that we can have”.

Though hampered at times by its excessive sweetness and predictable melodies; ‘The Butterfly Album’ packs enough stylistic variation to still impress and occasional showcase of brilliant song craft to impress.