I can be a judgemental old so and so from time to time, especially when it comes to music. I seem to have that grumpy git/musical snobbery type thing going which amuses my nearest and dearest immensely. That said, I am pretty open to most types of music and whilst I’ll maybe sometimes turn my nose up at something, I can be brought round to it fairly easily.
This post is a little tardy, it’s been in the pipeline a couple of months now but unlike many blog posts I plan to write and then never get round to it, I always knew that this one would get written…eventually. The thing is, I went to see Flynn play at the Oran Mor in June, the album was out the same week, timing says that would have been the obvious time to publish a blog. However, for the reasons I listed above, I wanted to give myself a little more ‘Johnny-time’.
Johnny Flynn is an artist who completely passed me by for some bizarre reason. I say bizarre because it’s probably something that couldn’t be anymore up my street. His first album ‘A Larum’ was released in 2008 and until this year, I’d not given it a second look. Then the second album was due for release this year and it appeared on my radar. The background on Mr Flynn is that he was one of the founding members of a gig night in London which has since spawned such musical luminaries as Mumford and Sons and Laura Marling. And for reasons which I can only explain from paragraph one of this blog, the Mumford thing kinda put me off a little. It’s stupid as I’ve not given Mumford and Sons enough time for me to let them put me of another musician, but music just does that to you sometimes. You get an idea about a band in your head and then boom, you get cynical. Incidentally, I just find Mumford and Sons baffling. They burst into song with their big gruff voices and then they are such well spoken chaps, I’m a little disappointed they don’t have gruff west country accents to match their songs.
Anyway, I digress. Luckily as I said, I give music a chance in the end and realising that I had nothing against Johnny Flynn and going on recommendations from a friend with exceptional taste for a good song, I decided to start from the beginning. I did the things I like to do when ‘discovering’ a new band. I went to his gig having listened to virtually nothing of his and not knowing what any of the songs were called, and it worked for me. I went straight home and bought the first album ‘A Larum’. The song that stuck in my head from the gig was called ‘The Box’, I was assured by my friend, this was the song the crowd would ‘go nuts for’. He was right, and fair enough as well, it’s a belter of a track and one which has had excessive plays on my ipod since.
The album has several stand out tracks and it’s completely listenable from beginning to end. Lively tracks like ‘The Box’ and ‘Tickle Me Pink’ are countered by meandering folky numbers like ‘Shore to Shore’ and personal favourite ‘Eyeless In Holloway’. It’s fair to say at this point I am completely smitten with Johnny Flynn and I’m a little surprised.
After I’d given A Larum a good listen and going over, I’ve got myself a copy of his recent album ‘Been Listening’. I find it a little different, not in a bad way I don’t think. I personally find it a little more produced and polished yet at times a little subdued. The achingly beautiful track ‘The Water’ is a real stand out here where Flynn duets with nu-folk darling Laura Marling. I think I’m still giving this album the chance to explode like the first album did but it’s not quite so immediate.
I guess it shows me I shouldn’t be so judgemental, however in reality I know it’s not going to stop me. It’s just one of the parts which makes me the person I am and I wouldn’t change it for the world. It can be rather fun sometimes!
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