This is Waterford troubadour Marc O’Reilly’s fourth album, and his first since the beloved Morality Mortality in 2016. Here, he generally forsakes the standard singer-songwriter route to strike out for more sonically challenging territory: L’etre Politique comes on like an electro indie-pop distillation of his previous offerings. The ingredients include the delectable John Martyn falsetto vocals and his regular gruff bluesy Americana, the fey indie-folk musings of Nick Drake and Bon Iver, assorted industrial-lite textures, and energetic in-your-face rhythms. What’s not to love? Even first-time buyers should be impressed from the off, with ‘Enemy Of’ boasting a relentless riff that recalls The Monkees’ ‘Last Train To Clarksville’, as well as a sweet middle-eight and exuberant guitar soloing. An engaging wah-wah groove kicks off ‘Be Alive’. Even when O’Reilly leans back a little, as on ‘Walk With Me’, he studiously avoids the obvious, while on tracks like the percussion-propelled ‘Illumi’ and the haunting ‘Solitary Ease’, nothing is ever overcooked. As if to show that he can still do it raw, he delivers ‘Fire’ with just guitar, exquisite vocals and some barely-there strings. Elsewhere, ‘Shadows’ has a nifty bass riff. while ‘Testify’ not only rattles but hums too, spiced as it is with tasty vocal effects. L’etre Politique translates as ‘political being’; the album’s lyrical themes deal intelligently with personal relationships, as well as issues of a more global nature, underscoring the sense that all politics is personal anyway. Throughout its nine tracks, O’Reilly boldly goes where others have gone before, delivering instantly accessible quality pop, while making no sacrifices to musical inventiveness. OUT NOW

Rating: 8/10