I Have A Tribe - Beneath A Yellow Moon
- Written by Marky Edison
Singer-songwriters are so commonplace in Ireland that we use them as kindling when the winter draws in. So it takes something special to merit getting the type of attention that I Have A Tribe have garnered. The artist formerly known as Patrick O'Laoghaire has a close association with this year’s Ivor Novello-winning Villagers. He has written and collaborated with Villagers’ Conor O’Brien as well as James Vincent McMorrow. He’s toured with Anna Calvi and is just back from a German trek with The Slow Show. Beneath A Yellow Moon was produced by Paul Savage (The Twilight Sad, Mogwai, Camera Obscura) and features original PJ Harvey band members Rob Ellis and Ian Olliver, as well as backing vocals by Fight Like Apes’ MayKay.
The lyrics are spartan and you can hear him smiling in his delivery. These are not the typical maudlin or histrionic warbles of the bedroom balladeer. O'Laoghaire has said that he was inspired by watching his infant niece improvising songs on the piano and singing with a total lack of inhibition. That childlike approach comes through on Beneath A Yellow Moon and it is endearing.
O’Laoighire’s affected vocal style is part Ahnoni, and part Emo Philips. On the opening track, ‘Passage’, he plays up to the character he is playing, singing ”I have twenty-seven years now” as if English is a language he has yet to master. ‘La Neige’ builds and swells until, two minutes in, he is joined by a full band and sweeping choral backing singers. The momentum that built with that song is lost when ‘After We Meet’ reverts to plain piano chords and gentle introductory vocals before the band joins again, about two minutes in. The stop-start nature of the songs continues with ‘Cold Fact’. This time the band appears after the first chorus and swings gently. O’Laoighire’s vocal interweaves with the rhythm section creating a lighters-in-the-air trad groove. Infuriatingly, ‘Battle-Hardened Pacifist’ pulls the rug again and all momentum is lost. It makes Beneath A Yellow Moon a frustrating experience of repeated false starts. There is no flow to the album.
The second half of the record descends into generic singer-songwriter territory with just voice and piano for much of it. ‘Casablanca’ is a 10-minute dirge with the tagline “Here’s lookin’ at you, kid” repeated more often than an E4 sitcom, and you get the feeling that perhaps it was too soon for I Have A Tribe to attempt an album. A subsection of the songs here would have made a good EP or mini-album. It is easy to forget that this is his debut album though. It is accomplished and each song taken individually has personality and warmth. They just don’t make a good collection. This sounds more like an odds-and-sods session anthology than a standalone record.