It’s not easy to write an unabashed love song without it being corny, but that’s exactly what Crumlin’s Jape manages to pull-off with the sunny indie-pop of Heal These Wounds, the opener from Endless Thread, his sixth album. It’s just the thing to brighten up a damp Irish autumn.
Richie Egan has a background in post-rock with The Redneck Manifesto, and he’s always had an experimental bent to his own music, but this time around he says he’s doubled down on melody. Not that Egan hasn’t always known his way around a tune – lest we forget the classic Floating from his very first album – but there’s a real unselfconsciousness here that is most endearing.
In Our Home – a whimsical, McCartney-ish ode to family Christmases – is the most startling example, to the extent that some may find it ‘a bit much’, while Lashing Through the Minutes is on safer ground with its pretty melody and an infectiously catchy two-line chorus, and the stomping Delete The Timeline makes going offline sound like a call to arms.
Melodies and hooks aplenty, then, but it’s fair to say that Egan’s experimental proclivities haven’t completely left him, and thank goodness for that. At just 27 minutes, there are more ideas and sonic detours here than in most albums twice its length; shards of noise, bits of percussion and strange instrumentation appear out of nowhere, and often disappear just as quickly. It makes for a record that, for all its winsome songwriting, is never less than fun to listen to.
Words: Chris Jones
Jape – Endless Thread
[Faction Records]
