One of Ireland’s most original young singer-songwriters returns with a set of often painfully honest, compelling songs. Lisa O’Neill is from Cavan, in the centre of the country, and her distinctive accent plays a key role in a vocal style that constantly changes direction, from soulful passages to songs treated with a croaking intensity, along with sudden reminders of her power and range. On the chillingly descriptive Nasty, she switches from a sneer to tenderness as she sings “he’s a nasty man, and he’s my man and he’s nice to me”. Elsewhere she mixes pained and personal songs with Gormlaith’s Grieving, an unexpectedly intimate ancient Irish history lesson, or Black Sheep, a surreal and poetic children’s song. O’Neill’s voice dominates the album, but she is helped by often sparse backing from her own guitar, banjo and piano, matched against sudden, atmospheric use of violin and percussion.
