They have spent most of their career being dismissed by musos, but it doesn’t seem to have halted the progress of. The Athy four-piece have cruised the mainstream with a loyal fan base at their back, even signing to Joe Jonas’s Let’s Get It label for their last album,former US talkshow. Three years on, Stateside fame and glory remain out of their reach, while their connection with Jonas appears to have been quietly severed.
Their fourth album may not be the record to clinch it, either, but these are solid pop songs with a saccharine heartbeat. When they work, as on the 1980s-tinged Act of Innocence, the uplifting Call It Love or the ubercatchy synth-laced Gorgeous, they’re great.
One of the best and most moving songs here is Song to Myself, addressed to the “sad little kid” that Hennessy once was, urging him, “If you need some help, just f**king reach out / If you dive into your head, make sure you don’t drown,” and offering a truthful portrait of himself and his tendency to draw comparisons .
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