This limited-edition live EP might have been recorded in Dublin Castle and Vicar Street as recently as 2003 and ’04, but with their Hammondy warmth, front-porch intimacy and Josh’s hat-in-hand, ardent-suitor delivery, these songs have an old-as-the-hills quality – without ever being retro (fair play!) or contrived – that make them feel as if you’ve known them forever.
It’s worth your money for ‘Kathleen’ alone: we reckon it’s his finest-ever moment, and this version is a killer. It prettily shows off Josh’s ability to know when to flash his gift for quirkily romantic metaphor (an outwardly confident, secretly lonely heroine possesses “a virgin Wurlitzer heart [that] never once had a song”) and when to just be beautifully direct (“I know you are waiting, and I know that it is not for me/But I’m here and I’m ready, and I’ll save you the passenger seat”). Irresistible.