Sometimes you instinctively know when something is right. It takes just four minutes 24 seconds of Simple Kid’s debut album, the aptly titled opening track ‘Hello’, to realise that this is going to be one of those joyous experiences. Squelchy keyboards straight out of Madonna’s ‘Music’, a cheap beat box, acoustic guitar and vibey falsetto vocals, it works some kind of downbeat magic.
An alumni of the Fierce Panda stable (always a sign of quality), SK1 finds Cork’s Ciaran McFeely walking the thin line that faces all those who merge the solo performer / band identity. Thankfully, this avoids the self-indulgentl lo-fi minimalist route, yet nor is it self-indulgently over produced. McFeely’s roots of living on the dole, smoking dope and messing around with a four track are still clear but he invests the album with an ambition that so many others lack. That he has spent the past few years in London is also evident, with songs such as ‘The Commuter’ and ‘Supertramps & Superstars’ demonstrating an eye for drawing vivid detail from the seemingly mundane, a combination of the Irish lyrical tradition with the uniquely English approach of Dury, Morissey and the rest. He may have sought asylum from the domestic indie scene over the water, but this particular Kid should still be hailed as one of the best of the new Irish breed.