Hal
Hal

THE REVIEW

"Tot capita, tot sententiae"

"Quite a nice name." That was roughly my first thought when I heard about this Irish group, which recently released its self-titled debut album on the Rough Trade label.
The reviews I had read also described their music as positive, sunny, clear, capable of showing evident references to musical trends that, from the Beach Boys onwards, have crossed the '70s. To this, we can add a string of virtually unanimous critiques positively welcoming the entry into the recording world of these four guys from Dublin. "All very interesting" was the second thought, which pushed me to the inexorable hunt for the album, without having listened to a single note of it.
However, if the name can be compared to a garment, then we can refer to the popular saying that clothes do not make the man. So, let's say right away that, beyond the name, I found nothing else beautiful in this record. If anything, I was negatively struck by the fact that out of eleven tracks, I couldn't find the pleasure of listening in a single one of them. I had the impression that they were all more or less banal, flat, conventional, dull, predictable, in a word, mediocre. The musicians present themselves well, have significant references, know how to play, for heaven's sake, moreover, the arrangements are very detailed and refined, but they lack ideas, depth.
These Dubliners lack spontaneity, and all their musical optimism seems to me as genuine as a florin. They can't convey, in my opinion, the value of positive light-heartedness that pop should have. In fact, I found in their music only a well-done repetition but extremely sly of overused forms and patterns. A lot of appearance and little substance in summary.

The listening experience is a continuous and exhausting déjà vu, often more annoying than evocative. For example, certain nasal voices, clumsy choruses, and falsetto refrains, on one side, reminded me of the most kitsch moments of the Supertramp, which I deluded myself into having forgotten, and on the other provoked an allergic reaction like an anaphylactic shock. At other times, the influence of the Beatles is evident, but only as a pale reflection of their incredible immediacy. In short, for them, I would find the classification of "whining-sly-pop" perfect.
Even though their music tells me nothing, clearly this album can be liked and even a lot, as evidenced by the widespread goodwill of critics towards it, but I honestly do not understand why. In my part of the world, we say "zentu cabbi, zentu berretti", while "tot capita, tot sententiae" the Latins used to say, but the concept is always the same: so many heads, so many opinions.
So the only advice I leave you with is to listen to something before you buy it, because the moral of the story is: don't trust reviews too much, not even this one.