The Edge Of Silence

It was evident on their last couple of albums that changes – other than personnel – were afoot within Solas.

Increasingly, there was a move towards contemporary material and textures, and the process has now come full circle, with not a trad piece in sight. Instead, we have original tunes from the band, and covers of, among other things, songs by Dylan and Tom Waits.

The result of all this morphing is that the Solas we knew is, on record at least, no more. In its place is a highly polished outfit bringing their own muse to new pastures, where the technical possibilities of the various instruments are stretched in all sorts of ways, usually delivering that which is sought. A very positive result of all this is that the band’s vocalist, Deirdre Scanlan, has truly found her voice .

On a song like Dylan’s ‘Dignity’ – no easy one to sing – she truly makes the piece her own, and there’s a greater sense of conviction to everything else she does.

Their own compositional work is of an exceptional standard, particular standouts being Mick McAuley’s ‘Beck Street’, and Win Horan’s ‘Maybe In A Prayer’, the latter a beautiful slow air which just screams “film score”. It’s taken a couple of runs to even get to its subtleties, but this album is probably the best shot that Solas have of moving to the next level, and then further up.