It’s often said that a week’s a long time in pop, yet in these internet-friendly, record company-obliterating days, the notion of bands recording albums and touring them as annual calendar events has long since vanished off the map.
Even allowing for the industry’s diminishing returns, though, an inordinately long, Blue Nile-esque hiatus has elapsed since this writer first espoused the virtue of Ian Whitty & The Exchange’s debut LP ‘The Lucky Caller No 9’ in the autumn of 2008.
Prior to that time, the Killarney-born, Cork-based singer/ songwriter had been a regular feature on the Irish indie circuit and, as your correspondent can also attest, The Exchange went on to play some blinding shows in support of their album in the 12 months following its release.
So what’s happened since? Very little musically for quite some time because…well, real life basically took precedence for Ian Whitty. Accordingly, his second LP ‘Cash Crop’ is the result of a lengthy period in the wilderness: a time during which he attended to the needs of family, regular work and - as his PR notes - he made the transition “from partner to parent”.
Patient fans, though, will have been glad they stuck around, for Whitty and co’s long-awaited sophomore release is not only an assured return to the fray, but a record which arguably has the measure of their highly promising debut.
Sonically, ‘Cash Crop’ is starker and punchier than its predecessor. Mostly recorded live in the studio, it accurately reflects The Exchange’s traditional two guitars, bass and drums in-concert set-up, with only minimal overdubs (piano, organ, occasional discreet programming) and it’s virtually devoid of the dramatic string embellishments which characterised ‘The Lucky Caller No 9’.
Consequently, while ‘Cash Crop’ is hardly a garage-punk regression, tracks such as the steely ‘Bottom Line’ and the exhilarating ‘Rodeo’ have a brashness and heft largely absent on ‘Lucky Caller No 9’, while the undulating – and all-too-brief – instrumental workout ‘Treadmill’ emits a hypnotic, Velvets-esque vibe. The brisk ‘Tragedy Bound’ also showcases The Exchange at their inventive best, with taut backing track supplying the ideal canvas for Whitty to paint an especially vivid portrait (“the tricks you’re playing on yourself/ they’re fooling you and no-one else”) of someone who’s clearly an accident waiting to happen.
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For the most part, ‘Cash Crop’ is notably more sombre lyrically than the (relatively) upbeat ‘Lucky Caller No 9’. Expertly blending the personal and political, Whitty confesses that he feels his “heart has bled on every pavement in this town” during the hard-hitting ‘Bottom Line’, while the sparse, ruminative titular song (“If I drink I’m more likely to score”) feels like a world-weary, experience-scarred cousin of the previous album’s celebratory, weekend-bound anthem ‘Houndstooth Shirt’.
Elsewhere, however, those craving Ian Whitty at his erudite best will be stoked by ‘Absent Mind’: a chiming, self-deprecatory pop song full of Costello-esque quips and wordplays (“My heart is a needle that gets harder to find/ when I’m searching in this haystack of an absent mind”). Less pun-some, but equally heartfelt is the touching, Americana-tinged ‘Tattoo Rings’, while the finger-picked folk song ‘Flower From The Field’ and the heart-string tugging ‘Birds Carry Souls’ are among the most affecting ballads you’ll hear this or any other year.
So, while kingdoms may have risen and fallen while Ian Whitty & The Exchange laboured over their sophomore LP, the end result reminds us that if something’s good, it’ll always be worth waiting for. Indeed, such is the calibre of ‘Cash Crop’ that it’s bang on the money throughout and leaves absolutely no IOUs whatsoever.
Ian Whitty & The Exchange Facebook page
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