It’s getting rather crowded round at Singer-Songwriter Towers, but Declan O’Rourke’s first full album suggests he’s too good not to be given his own room. He has a warm resonant voice that can dig as deep as Jack L, is an accomplished tunesmith and a fine guitarist to boot, talents that have earned him accolades from artists of the calibre of Paul Brady and Eddi Reader.
So O’Rourke is no one-trick pony, and he moves effortlessly from introspective bedsit offerings, like the enticing opener ‘No Place To Hide’, ‘Everything Is Different’ and ‘We Didn’t Mean To Go To The Sea’, to more high-octane efforts like the superbly rocking ‘No Brakes’, ‘1-Way Minds’ and ‘Your World’, the last two reminiscent of Rubber Soul-era Beatles with folk and country echoes. ‘Galileo’ is a particularly heart-melting song, its poignant strings the perfect backdrop to O’Rourke’s voice as it slides effortlessly from baritone to falsetto. The karaoke singalong ‘Love Is The Way’ has a touch of Lennonesque tweeness during his “love is all you need” phase. The album ends with ‘Marrying The Sea’, an unaccompanied traditional air, showcasing how O’Rourke’s expressive voice can do the business on its own.
Steve Wickham guests with his fiddle on several tracks, and Sharon Shannon adds her trademark accordion to ‘Til Death Do Us Part’. O’Rourke’s lyrics often have the visual impact of the big screen, and he knows how to pen a winning melody, but ultimately it’s that voice which does it.