After apprenticeships with the innovative small Scottish labels Fence and Lost Map, Seamus Fogarty has joined the big league with Domino Records. This stunning, mercurial album shows us why. Held together by Fogarty’s lovely unadorned voice, it constantly unwinds and uncoils, taking us on magical journeys through fable and modern life and back again, often in the same song. Gorgeous electronics, recorded dialogue and woodwind give deeper shades to the more traditional sounds, and its cast list is rich. Here are entertainers boiled to the bone and strung high, men digging holes who explode like nail guns, hens “taking flight” in Temple Bar and Van Gogh, who leaves one ear on “so he could hear”. We also sweep between locations beautifully, from “a mile beneath the broken heart of London Town” to snowy Chicago landscapes and fields that stretch forever. Longing, humour and sadness accompany us, never letting us go.
