Fionn Regan
Grizzly Bear Review: Tuesday June 29, 2010
Fionn Regan kicks off with a trio of Rock n' Roll tunes of the utmost quality. He may have taken a new direction with 2010s ‘The Shadow Of An Empire’ but this dusty southern path led him smack bang in the middle of Blues central via Dylan on ‘Highway 61’. The new ground that he is treading is shows he is wise beyond his years, like a reinvigorated man on a mission to prove he has more in his satchel than his Mercury Music Prize nominated debut.
The unrelenting bluesy riffage of 'Genocide Matinee' is a vehicle for Regan's 'Subterranean Homesick Blues'-style stream of consciousness lyrics, lines like "Strip me bare like the scapegoat, the primate praised the public vote" being rendered all the more visceral for the rapidity with which they roll off Regan's tongue.
Each track from this high-octane ramshackle set is being dragged kicking and screaming through Nashville county into the new decade.
As strobe lights burst and organs fade we come to the end of the road. Fionn reminds us of his poetic beauty. Acoustic guitar hugged to his chest, he parts with the melancholy ‘Be Good Or Be Gone’.
