Dublin’s NIALL JAMES HOLOHAN proclaims himself “The Dark Prince of Pop” and in his biography criticises Ireland’s capital as being full of “over-earnest and often pretentious singer/songwriters”. When not dismissing fellow artists HOLOHAN has managed to find time over the years to unleash around 20 homemade recordings but ‘A Beautiful Corpse’ represents his first concerted effort to compile a large chunk of his music in one place prior to a full commercial debut.
There are 17 tracks making up this compilation and all retain a home recording sensibility and sound with the guitar and vocals most prominent in this large variety pack of songs. ‘A Beautiful Corpse’ also contains the telling signs of a man clearly enthused by live performance and HOLOHAN has showcased his talents at a number of venues including Manchester’s IN THE CITY and Texas’ SOUTH X SOUTH WEST.
The first real positive to be drawn from ‘A Beautiful Corpse’ is the ambitious song-writing that HOLAHAN displays and which the lo-fi production does nothing to lessen. His voice is good as well, managing to range seemingly effortlessly from a rasping Lennon twang on tracks like ‘No Instant Gratification For You’ to an intimate ‘Hunky Dory’ era Bowie semi-spoken folkiness on tracks such as ‘No Serial Monogamist, Me’. As you may gather from the Morrisey/Smiths like song titles – personal favourite: ‘I Must Be A Fool To Still Be Surprised That I’m Alone’ - there is no small amount of pithy commentary to the HOLOHAN repertoire and a fair dollop of incisive wit peppers his lyrics. Admirable but easily tiresome, so fortunately on tracks like ‘Owed To My Love’, ‘Eleanor’ and ‘I Dance Alone’ he clearly shows that he is capable of keeping a straight face and intimate perspective amidst the irony and caustic observation.
|
Unfortunately the significant negative is the length of this sampler (approx. 80 minutes) and the lack of editing in the tracks, most of which stretch over the four and five minute mark. With such evident intelligent word-play and instinctive melodic tendencies HOLOHAN is in danger of diluting his talent by not casting a more incisive and objective eye across his canon of work.
He has the potential to offer a distinctive voice but on the evidence of ‘A Beautiful Corpse’ it is currently one with no easy to discern objective in terms of his musical and lyrical agenda. When he’s good he’s very good but too many ideas in one place threaten to tip the critical balance from open hearted applause for his versatility and forthrightness to disgruntled indifference towards his lack of focus and discipline. It would be a loss if the latter view were to prevail but as with the likes of Damon Gough and Stephen Merritt such waywardness is perhaps at heart the nature of the beast.
Hopefully by the time the full commercial debut is released HOLOHAN will know how to make the necessary cuts to give his talent the clear and dynamic identity it patently deserves.
|
