Fionn Regan\u2019s debut album, The End Of History<\/i>, was undoubtedly one of the best releases by a singer-songwriter in years. Regan\u2019s songs were intimate, authentic, and warm. Some compared him to Damien Rice, others to Neil Young. With his second record, The Shadow Of An Empire<\/i>, the Irishman has chosen a new musical path.<\/p>\n
It can be hard for someone like Fionn Regan to step out of the shadows of Bob Dylan and Leonard Cohen. Regan decided to not even try. His second album is far from inventive. The first track, \u201cProtection Racket,\u201d clearly shows this. It\u2019s very cheerful but sounds like a crossover between Bob Dylan and The Libertines. The same goes for \u201cCatacombs.\u201d It sounds absolutely great, but the nasal singing and Dylan-like phrasing are a bit worrying. Fortunately Dylan\u2019s not his only influence. \u201cGenocide Matinee\u201d is a rockabillyish tune that reminds me of Supergrass and Johnny Cash.<\/p>\n
Regan\u2019s previous record was largely acoustic, but there are only a few acoustic songs on The Shadow Of An Empire<\/i>. \u201cViolent Demeanor,\u201d a Leonard Cohen-style song starts off with just a guitar and vocals, but eventually a piano, electric guitar, and drums join in. Its chorus sounds a bit too much like Razorlight for my liking, but it\u2019s a decent track. \u201cLines Written In Winter\u201d could\u2019ve been on his previous album. It has the lyrical brilliance of Leonard Cohen mixed with, again, a bit of Dylan. \u201cLittle Nancy\u201d is astonishing: the dragging beat, banjo, and harmonica make it sound a bit like The Pogues with a hint of Ryan Adams.
The Shadow Of An Empire<\/i> is not very avant-garde, but it is a fun, pleasant record that will lift your spirits. It doesn\u2019t contain many songs as good as, for example, \u201cPut A Penny In The Slot\u201d but as a whole it is a robust and satisfying album. Fionn Regan has again proved to be a fine songwriter and lyrical genius.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":30464,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[8631],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-42128","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-fionn-regan","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/42128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30464"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=42128"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=42128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}