Review: Red Sail – Paper Cutouts EP.

Folk music is the genre of the under-appreciated. It is the style most associated with those who happily strum their guitars and sing songs about love and life, avoiding the limelight and delightedly so. Think Frank Turner, Laura Marling, The Felice Brothers. Think Red Sail, the Dublin band who recently released their debut EP, ‘Paper Cutouts‘.

Red Sail are a relatively new band, having formed in 2011, they have so far been met with an impressive reception from Ireland’s most renowned music bloggers including “2 u I bestow”. One listen to the four track EP and it is easy to see why Red Sail, despite their freshness, are already getting so much attention. One key point of making folk music is that you must have the ability to blend and harmonise your voice with your band mates’ and the music; this is something Red Sail pull off seamlessly and with little or no effort.

Title track Paper Cutouts is the perfect example of this. All three band members vocals compliment the music being played, and it would seem that they were meant to sing together. The song is quintessential modern folk with a fast paced tempo, piano, excellent vocal range and perfectly tuned guitar. Twists is another well composed folk number that conveys the three-pieces ability to create a song that starts of slow before it climaxes in a guitar-filled, harmonised finish. The song is made all the more memorable by the addition of glockenspiel which inevitably perks up the song, rendering it as somewhat of a summer tune. The standout track on ‘Paper Cutouts” is an emotional one; Sitting at the Keys. It is truly an astonishingly beautiful song with raw and effective lyrics that pull on the heart-strings. The poignancy of the lyrics is reinforced by the delicate piano and mournful vocals. It is a touching song which merits many enthusiastic adjectives as well as an abundance of praise.

To think that this band have not been performing together 12 months is unbelievable; in fact this reviewer had to visit several sources to confirm before she could truly believe that they are so new. It seems as though they have been writing and performing music together for a much longer time. The way in which their voices meld together in each of the four tracks, how perfect the composition, how well written the lyrics are; it’s the sound of much longer established band. It would be surprising if this band didn’t join the mainstays of the modern folk music world to become known as Ireland’s best of the genre.