Sunday 19 April 2009

Review - Francis Rodino - Circles & Squares

Francis Rodino - Circles & Squares

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3 out of 10

Despite the Pearl Jam-like riffage in lead single Burn, Francis Rodino is more Daniel O'Donnell than Eddie Vedder. We all know how lucrative the mawkish acoustic-singer-songwriter market is. Lucrative enough for this album to get recorded on fifty grand's worth of pre-orders through MySpace and Facebook, anyway. If your idea of high emotion is watching re-runs of Heartbeat, or you find yourself crying during television talent contests then you'll play this album on a loop until the cockroaches take over.

The rest of us will simply wonder why the world needs an album sounding like the bloke from the Corrs doing a 'solo project'. Despite the crafted and heartfelt lyrics, it doesn't do to pay too much attention. 'The things that they taught you in school never needed no use' (Science) - missing Grammar was an error, clearly. 'Drink to the sex that you'll never forget' (Drink) - we're back to Dodgy O'Donnell, again. Overall, this album could be a soundtrack to Facebook - well-meaning and shiny but spend time with it and you may wonder if you're wasting your life.

Listen: www.myspace.com/francisrodino

Tracklist:
1. Burn
2. One Love
3. Any Day Now
4. Walk With Me
5. Science
6. Don't Say Never
7. Blood
8. More Than Before
9. Drink
10. Wonderful From Here

2 comments:

Unknown said...

0_o

The lyrics are clearly 'nor used'.
The money was raised on Sellaband not Facebook / Myspace.
Since when did Daniel O'Donnell write drinking songs about sex? I might have to check his music out if he does...

Unknown said...

Agree that the lyrics are 'nor used.' Personally I think this album is fantastic. It's down-to-earth rock--something we haven't had in the mainstream for quite some time. You agree that it's heart-felt. I would also say that it's refreshing. If you don't like heart-felt music (you didn't like Grohl's Tiny Dancer either), what does blow your hair back?