Julie Feeney - Aching
Release date: Out Now
Format: Single
Genre: Folk/Indie
Our Rating: 3/5
Nice start Julie, beautiful melodic, female vocalist with classical strings accompaniment. The title and only track on the single delivers some minimal lyrics that sweep over the instrumentals, an excellent taster from her album ’13 Songs’.
Review by Sian Pickles
Press Release:
28-year-old Irish composer singer and multi-instrumentalist Julie Feeney pushes the Do It Yourself concept to the extreme. Completely self managed until this year, not only did she produce her debut album ’13 Songs’, but she composed and arranged all the songs, played most of the instruments and sang all of the parts. She also designed the artwork, organised the manufacturing and distribution of the album and, up until the point of being picked up by RED INK/ SONY BMG funded, marketed and promoted it.
‘13 Songs’ breaks the rules. Instead of guitars, bass and drums there is an interesting array of instruments, including the recorder, violin, harmonium, melodica and, on one song, a clock. There are no clichés, instead a healthy disrespect for the conventions of popular music production. Yet ’13 Songs’ is not innovative for innovation’s sake. At no point is Julie’s voice buried or her gift for melody sacrificed, and each theme that is touched upon lyrically is universal. ‘13 songs’ is, in Julie’s words, ‘a listening album’. It is neither background nor party music; the kind of record that the listener forms a relationship with, that is cherished. It has garnered glowing reviews and in February 2006 was awarded The Choice Music Prize (Ireland’s equivalent of the Mercury prize).
The first single to be released from ’13 Songs’ will be the bravado of an opener on the album, ‘Aching’. A subtle ode to heartache and longing, ‘Aching’ touches on the theme of obsessive love without indulgence or sentimentality, but rather with frank simplicity. Simultaneously purist and modern, ‘Aching’ is an infectious slice of avant classical pop.
Featuring Feeney holding a note for almost half a minute (reportedly a Guinness record), ‘Aching’ refracts medieval and renaissance musical traditions through a beautifully stark use of strings and voice.
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