Niall Moran - All City Birds Hate the Noise

  by Malcolm Carter

published: 25 / 9 / 2018

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Review

Even though with a few clicks we can now find out more than we could possibly ever want to know about almost anybody there are still some musicians who are frustratingly off the grid. This writer knows absolutely nothing about Niall Moran; well that’s not entirely true, but the only information I have is that Moran is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Co. Mayo, Ireland. Moran is now based in London and has been active during the last three years putting on both solo gigs and some with a revolving bunch of musicians. And he was inspired to write and perform after hearing Daniel Johnson, and his favourite artists are Bill Callahan, Will Oldham, Jason Molina and Ron Sexsmith. After just listening to half this album, I was so intrigued by the sound that this singer-songwriter makes I even tried to do some research on him. Results = next to nothing. I even went on Facebook and while Moran has a Facebook page it appears it’s just that, a page with a blurred image. Maybe it’s me as I’m inexperienced when it comes to Facebook (really), and maybe there was some magic icon I should have clicked on which would have opened up Moran’s world to me. I couldn’t find it. And now I’m more frustrated as over the course of the dozen original songs on ‘All City Birds Hate the Noise’ Moran has become my latest musical obsession. While there are obvious traces of Moran’s favourite artists scattered throughout this album, his songs also reflect, at times, those of the classic 60’s singer-songwriters while really sounding nothing like them. It appears from the CD sleeve (strange that while information about Moran is thin on the ground that the CD that lies in front of me has been lovingly presented; it’s not a boring shiny silver disc but a black vinyl replica. The design on the cover is striking and created by Moran and it’s obvious that care and time has gone into packaging this set of songs) that Moran produced all the sounds on the album except for percussion on four tracks and the fiddle which makes an appearance on a couple of songs. It’s no exaggeration to say that ‘All City Birds Hate the Noise’ is one of the best albums I’ve heard in 2018. Or at least two thirds of it are. So what makes this singer-songwriter so special? Moran has everything you’d expect; the pretty melodies that are give the impression that they are already old friends although you know you’ve only just met them, Moran’s one of that breed of singer-songwriters who is a storyteller (not all are) who makes the listener feel part of his world and a voice that is warm and inviting; it’s nothing spectacular or idiosyncratic it’s just appealing and has that special something that just draws the listener into his songs. For all his time spent away from his birthplace Moran hasn’t yet lost all of the charm his birthplace would have injected into his voice and that still shows through at times. Then there are the little touches, the odd, unexpected sounds that Moran has dropped into his songs here and there. Up until the ninth track, ‘Lost Chord’, Moran has the listener in his grip. But then the last three songs take a different turn. While it’s possible that Moran had a very good reason for including the very lo-fi ‘Heart Attack Song’ on the album and, while it’s obvious there’s a song in there that needs to be treated like the rest of the album, one wonders what the point was as it interrupts the flow of the record. Maybe it was recorded direct from a radio broadcast and it means something to Moran but if it had to be included then the last track would have been the ideal position for it. ‘The Movie’ again has a good, if not great, song buried in there, but is once again crying out for the treatment afforded to the first nine songs. There is lovely lead guitar but it sounds like the rest of the song is leaking in from the next room. The closing ‘People Have Accidents On Scooters On Holidays’ is again ultra lo-fi with just the title (which is the best thing about the song) repeated a couple of times. So, for nine songs (even the short opening ‘Wrong Side of the Bed’ is full of charm) Moran had my undivided attention and blew me away with his songs and I’m sure he has good reason for the inclusion of the last three; it’s just with so little information out there will we ever know why? But we can be sure of one thing; Niall Moran, on this showing, has enough talent and the songs.

Track Listing:-

1 Wrong Side of the Bed
2 2AM
3 Heartstrung Days
4 I Won't Need This
5 Falling Gloam
6 Isla Bloom
7 Here to Stay
8 Natasha
9 Lost Chord
10 Heart Attack Song
11 The Movie
12 People Have Accidents on Scooters on Holidays

Band Links:-

https://en-gb.facebook.com/niallmoranm