Valentine Black, or Peco McLoughlin to his friends, has been treading the boards of the Irish music scene for quite a while, scoring top 40 hits with Bright Light Fiasco before taking the plunge to go solo a number of years ago. “Desire Lines”, the début album from the Kildare native, is set to be released on Valentine’s Day next month, but features more tales of political wrong-doing, vintage vehicles and murder than you’d usually expect on the most romantic day of the year.
It’s a difficult record to get a grasp on, it’s hard to fall in love with and equally hard to hate, but remaining indifferent to it just isn’t an option either. Black’s sound is a sort of folksy indie-rock: influences like Dylan and Springsteen are there, but with a more modern, poppier twist. Here, he has delivered an accomplished piece of work, with a lot of love and dedication obviously put into it, but there are too few standout moments to make this as memorable and distinctive as it could be.
A Town At The End Of The World is a promising start to proceedings. A sulking tale of heartache, its rolling drums and rhythmic guitar soon join Black’s strong, clear vocals to build into a dramatic, cymbal-heavy chorus. Next up is In The Dead Of The Night, an edgy story of murder told over a simple drum beat with the help of some old-school backing vocals; it later turns into a boozy, brawling breakdown with a swooping string arrangement. Unusual and original, they’re early highlights.
Further on, tracks like Retrospect raise the bar. A heartfelt, effortless song, its low-key, downcast opening suddenly crashes into a rousing, string-led burst of energy: it’s a gorgeous piece of work. The State We’re In ups the tempo, lamenting the demise of the country in deceptively fun-sounding protest. With some lush instrumentation, instantly catchy doo-wopping, and the machine-gun delivery of the vocals, it’s a great song which shows the potential that this album has.
Sadly, the rest of the material is slightly more uneven. Love Oceans is an overwrought, try-hard love song with terrible lyrics which, bizarrely, reference Morris Minors: I’m no expert, but I wouldn’t count that as a massively successful flirting strategy. The gentle rhythm of More Than New York falls apart at the chorus, when the vocals drop out of sync with the pounding keys and drums. Others, such as Return Of The Lotus Eaters and Take Me To Your Leader, aren’t entirely bad songs, but there’s nothing new or remarkable about them: they sound too familiar and formulaic, and they’re forgettable for that.
Saying that, “Desire Lines”, while not the greatest album you’re going to hear this year, certainly isn’t the worst either. It feels like Valentine Black came out to make straightforward, honest music rather than shake up the game, and there are enough interesting and impressive moments on here to suggest that good things could come from his direction in the future.