Diviners

Diviners, from Kildare town, don’t seem to have made up their mind as to what kind of band they wannabe. This, their debut album, offers a mixed bag of goodies which confuses as often as it delights. Judged on tracks like ‘Gunslinger’, ‘What Was I Thinking’ and ‘Feeling Lucky’ Diviners are a solid country-rock based outfit much of whose sound could be traced back to the early pioneers of the genre like Poco or New Riders Of The Purple Sage. Fortunately they manage to inject enough energy and verve to make it worth the effort.

But then you come to ‘Going Down’, where vocalist Philip Scott sounds uncannily like latterday Lynott on a song that is soft-funk pop. ‘Deep Blue Sea’ has echoes of the soft-side of Dire Straits supporting David Gray. For ‘Nothing Was Left’ they go back to solid three-four folk-rock. Then again, ‘Close To Me’ and ‘So’ could be from U2 or Stereophonics respectively.

Despite the dated approach, Diviners do it all with an appealing swagger, which suggests that, with a bit more focus, they might begin to mean something.