Anton O’Donnell
Tomber Sur PRW
Need To Know
Quality, Well Constructed, Articulate and Imaginative Americana/Alt. Country.
We first encountered Anton O’Donnell a couple of years ago when a mutual friend in Glasgow brokered a review for his ANTON & THE COLTS album NO END OF THE LINE which I described as Country Rock Deluxe From The Clydeside Delta and it was.
So, bar a single not long after he and they dropped off my radar until two weeks ago when this arrived on my doorstep.
Soon after I pressed play for opening track Kindness I realised that I was in for a much different listening party than I had 5 years previously. While O’Donnell has obviously surrounded himself with some superb musicians, it’s apparent that this solo record is a whole lot darker, deeper and no doubt personal.
This is followed by the windswept and atmospheric Skulduggery which has hints of Neil Young about it; but I’m damned if I can think which period though. The guitar parts are as spiky and electric as anything the time with Crazy Horse every delivered, but the lyrics and indeed narrative is straight out of After The Goldrush IMHO, but all wrapped up in O’Donnell’s desperately emotional West Side of Glasgow burr.
After playing the album twice I weakened and read the Press Release; and (you will like this) I was correct in my thoughts. There’s very much a West Coast ‘feel’ to these songs; although more the dark underbelly that inhabits the parts of Sin City and beyond that the tourist guides avoid, and it turns out O’Donnell wrote and developed these songs with the guys at Need To Know in Santa Cruz.
Without ever sounding like a concept album, there is a thread that seems to link each song throughout, making for a sympathetic flow of songs.
What is key here though, is the incisive songwriting throughout, with each song having ‘staying power’ as they compete with one another for the listeners’ attention.
The heartbreaking Dreams Fade Under The Weight is somewhat of a stunning song, O’Donnell’s voice sounding old and wise beyond his years as Rob Ickes Dobro, Eamon McLaughlin’s exquisite fiddle playing and Shannon Hayes background vocals take us into some weird cinematic region that your brain didn’t know existed.
Set It On Fire starts with an angry guitar salvo before Anton’s world weary voice glides in on a tale of our times
“I’ve never seen the streets so bare
Sirens and pigeons are all I hear
And the news keeps picking on my fears.”
I think we’ve all had cause to feel that way in recent years.
Just when you think you’ve got a handle on the album, a curve ball is thrown with Madman On the Loose, which digs so deep into the heart of Americana you’d never know the songwriter came from another continent; but probably it takes that kind of romanticism to fill four minutes with so much Technicolour imagery.
The album closer, Django is as absorbing as it’s’ intriguing, a bewitching Cowboy Song with enough fiddle, mandolin and pedal-steel to bring a tear to a glass eye, and the likes of which only Tom Russell ever wrote this well and listenable too.
As an album this is as complete as it gets with songs gliding and even bleeding into one another; but there really are plenty of stand out songs, which I’ve somehow narrowed down to two as my Favourite Songs.
While fitting in perfectly into this musical jigsaw, Roots is as universal as music gets, and even though this version sounds like it could be featured on an X-Rated Road Movie, I can easily imagine O’Donnell singing it alone in clubs across Europe leaving audiences totally spellbound.
It Never Lasts made we go WOAH! as it’s a full on intensely Alt. Country claustrophobic Rocker that will have musical masterminds desperately trying to unravel verse after verse, while the likes of me are happy enough chanting the chorus as if our lives depend on it.
I’m writing this review a couple of days after a ‘famous’ Singer-Songwriter in Americae wrote a dissertation that basically said that ‘there was too much new music around these days; meaning more quantity rather than quality.’
It’s fair to say this got my hackles up as this album; and generally the other 2-300 RMHQ reviews every year certainly fits into the ‘quality’ bracket that she was talking about, but she is unlikely ever to hear as there are far too few outlets (even on the Spotify unless someone famous puts a track on a Playlist) for Independent releases.
Hey ho ….. if you like your Americana/Alt. Country of the well constructed, articulate and imaginative variety, this is definitely for you …. try it, you will like it…. trust me.
https://www.facebook.com/antonodonnellatc
Released October 27th 2023
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https://aodonnell.bandcamp.com/
The Rocking Magpie 