Declan O’Rourke – Arrivals (2021)
FLAC (tracks) 24 bit/44,1 kHz | Time – 44:41 minutes | 486 MB | Genre: Pop
Studio Masters, Official Digital Download | Front Cover | © East West Records
“Proffering reassurance in the face of inevitable sorrow” is what New York Times’ chief popular music writer Jon Pareles has said about Irish songwriter Declan O’Rourke. His many fans in his home country would, of course, have known only too well that O’Rourke has been spreading hope, love and emotional clarity for almost 20 years and across six studio albums.
What’s next for this intuitive songwriter, whose expressive work gently catches the light in many different ways, is his new album Arrivals – yet another departure. Produced by no less a figure than Paul Weller, O’Rourke remarks that the music icon “was there every moment, before, during and long after, discussing ideas about this and that, even down to the artwork. It was hugely impressive.”
In several important ways, O’Rourke’s new, emotionally potent songs hark back to when he started out during the glory days (and nights) of Dublin’s singer-songwriter scene. The truth is he doesn’t like walking the same path over and over again. A deeper truth is that while artists need to secure themselves to their own identity, they also have to explore outside it.
Produced by longtime fan Paul Weller, the seventh album from the Dublin-born songwriter is a sparsely arranged folk set. It follows 2017’s Chronicles of the Great Irish Famine and brings acoustic guitars and strings to the fore, not unlike Weller’s 2018 album True Meanings. O’Rourke delivers an assured vocal throughout, rich with storytelling, as evinced on “The Stars Over Kinvara” and “In Painters’ Light.” – James Wilkinson
Tracklist:
1. Declan O’Rourke – In Painters’ Light (02:55)
2. Declan O’Rourke – The Harbour (04:06)
3. Declan O’Rourke – The Stars Over Kinvara (03:55)
4. Declan O’Rourke – Olympian (06:02)
5. Declan O’Rourke – Arrivals (05:30)
6. Declan O’Rourke – Andy Sells Coke (03:21)
7. Declan O’Rourke – Have You Not Heard the War is Over (04:17)
8. Declan O’Rourke – Convict Ways (06:12)
9. Declan O’Rourke – Zeus and Apollo (04:38)
10. Declan O’Rourke – This Thing That We Share (03:41)
