Magico Magico

LIR: "Magico Magico" (Velo)

NO NAMBY-PAMBY introductions to ease into the review this time round. It's quite simple; parts of this album are great, and other parts suck. Sometimes, this dipping between the great and the grating can happen within the confines of one song. Take 'Redwood', which starts impeccably; Dave Maguinness' remarkable voice stays soothing and serene even when floating around those impressively high notes. And then, for absolutely no good reason whatsoever that wah-wah guitar of Ronan's chips in, drummer Craig decides to follow suit and get some of that noise action, and suddenly I want to beat them up.

Lir are very talented. Live, that talent is so blatantly obvious that it quite justifies the Next Big Thing tag they've been saddled with ever since Smiley first started wearing their butterfly-motif shirts on the Beat Box. But that immediately identifiable sixties/prog rock/whatever cliché you're having yourself style of theirs can suffocate songs that gain absolutely nothing from the funky bass and jazzy keyboards they're wont to throw all over the place, impressively played as both bass and keyboards may be.

The best songs by far on Magico Magico are the stark, slower ones; 'Zero', 'In A Day', 'Two Worlds'. It might be a fault of production that more forceful tracks like 'House Of Song' and ' In The Parlour' don't succeed to nearly the same capacity in these versions as they do live. Alternatively, it could be that Lir themselves feel a necessity to try and cram, not just the kitchen sink, but the pipes, the fittings, and the plumber onto some songs that really, truly, would benefit from less attention.

Lir's second album is already in the planning stages. This is by no means a poor debut, just a deceptive one. Lir have more potential than Magico Magico may trick you into believing.

• Lorraine Freeney