CD review
Pauline Scanlon
Red colour sun
The Daisy Label
The ghost of Sinéad O’Connor hangs heavily over Dingle singer Pauline Scanlon’s debut album Red Colour Sun.
Not only do the two Irish singers share the same producer, John Reynolds, but they also share a similar vocal style.
In fact Scanlon’s voice sounds so similar to O’Connor’s that I doublechecked the sleevenotes twice in search of Ms O’Connor’s credit.
A former backing vocalist for Sharon Shannon, here on her debut album Pauline Scanlon sets out her stall with an eclectic mix of songs which place her somewhere between the aforementioned Ms O’Connor, Kathryn Williams and Kate Rusby.
Trad fans will be happy with her renditions of John Spillane’s All the Ways You Wander and Siegerson Clifford’s The Boys of Barr na Sraide.
However, the similarity to O’Connor, particularly on Molly Bán, Sally Free and Easy and her duet with up and coming folk-rapper Damien Dempsey on Peggy Seegers’ Springhill Mining Disaster, may jar with some.
But we can forgive her everything by track six — where she gives an unparalleled fragility and beauty to her cover of the Willie Nelson song Valentine.
Overall, Red Colour Sun, is a good, debut folk album featuring many influences from Ireland, England and north America.
However, it is when Pauline Scanlon eventually finds her own singular voice that she will undoubtedly become a star.
Catherine Jackson
|
