Johnny Flynn - Larum (14 tracks) +Album Reviews

Intelligent, musical, and mature

J. V. Lewis | secure undisclosed location | 07/25/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I received this CD from Vine without expectations, not even aware of Flynn by name. I didn't listen to it for a couple of days, thinking the cover and inserts looked a bit overworked and pretentious. Then I put it in the stereo for a 4-hour drive and ended up playing it 4 times, back to back. The simple, folksy arrangements of guitar, banjo, fiddle, and cello are simultaneously loose, joyous, musical, and sophisticated. Harmonies are rich, straightforward, and as pretty as some of Gillian Welsh's best work. But the album keeps rewarding repeated listening because the playing never feels over-rehearsed or polished: it feels spontaneous and energetic, without contrivance or posing. I'm reminded of Robin Hitchcock, who always manages to stay real despite the complexity of his songs, a sign of great musicianship, I think. I am also very pleasantly reminded of Joe Strummer in his post-depression, self-aware, rejoicing Mescaleros period: perfectly rough and unrefined vocals that miss the notes just so, refuse to stay straight on the beat, and always communicate Flynn's enrgy and enthusiasm. This would be enough for a very listenable 4-star album, but Flynn and his band manage even more: several of these songs are truly brilliant, and the playing is spot-on, like a small live show on a great night. Intimate, energetic, musical, authentic, joyous. I haven't felt this much excitement for a new album in a long time."

Contemporary caravan music

Steve Ruskin | Colorado, United States | 08/15/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Johnny Flynn is a modern gypsy (as are, apparently, his band the Sussex Wit--unless that's just the name of his mongrel gypsy dog). At least that's how 'A Larum' sounds: songs written by and about those playing on the road, in the Underground, in a field, under a bridge, under the stars. Best listened to while on a road trip, or tramping about with a rucksack. Use of this album anywhere near a discotheque will likely result in death by culture shock.

Flynn's unique voice and the often unusual guitar work give each song a character that sticks in the ears: no song-after-song-running-together here.

The cleverly suggestive "Leftovers" can best be described as rollicking, while some of the most poetic lyrics on the disc are found in "The Wrote & the Writ" ("I'll soon forget what was never there/Your words are ash and dust/All that's left is the song I've sung/The breath I've taken and the one I must").

But the pulse of the album is heard in "The Box," which not only starts the CD off but also contains most of the elements the rest of the songs tease out individually.

More, please."

Catchy and Good

Ophella Paige | Reno, Nevada | 08/14/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Listening to his voice the first thing that strikes me is that Johnny Flynn sounds so much older than his twenty-five years. Maybe it's his Shakespearian training, I don't know, but it's good, his voice is and I like his range and how he subtly changes how he sounds, sometime so subtly you don't even know it.

I don't know really how to describe how he sounds, maybe if you took an early Johnny Cash, threw in early Donovan and a big dash of Nike Drake and mixed it all up in an Irish Stew, you might come up with Johnny Flynn. You could do a lot worse, that's for sure."

Original sound

OlyNomad | Seattle, WA | 08/12/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I had never heard of this musician before, the description just sounded interesting. This is a very good CD. It feels like they are singing in your living room or like a bunch of (talented) friends are playing around the campfire. I found it really raw and original and very relaxing.

The music is there, real music, not a bunch of overkill enhanced stuff you hear too often now.

Good stuff."

JOHNNY FLYNN, BOY WONDER

Guy De Federicis | east of here | 08/02/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I'm given a debut CD by an artist I've never heard of and my expectations are null. I pop it in the player, crash my head into a pillow, and my intended nap is interrupted by what sounds like ... music, ... Appalachian music, no, ... Irish music, played by what seems in a half sleep, a stoned and conservatively psychedelic Salvation Army street band, led by a baritone vocal commanding attention as if masterfully faking a perfect English accent. Who IS this guy? The lavish CD information say he's a transported South African from England, that he played with an acclaimed Shakespearean troupe in New York City, and is the son of an unnamed British character actor. At 25 years of age, he plays his songs with The Sussex Wit, a musical ensemble of various stringed instruments and decidedly rock and roll fueled drums. Together they create folksy and indie-minded arrangements, catchy rhythms, and songs that sing from the dark soul of the privileged class jumping ship to sink with the rest of us. Flynn himself, aside from vocals, plucks gentle and complex acoustics, experiments with a creaky fiddle, and blows a strong and solitary trumpet that sounds like a 12 year old musician beaming with pride at his first flawless recital. The CD biographical notes credit Bob Dylan as a big influence, but it's the corpse of the late Sid Barrett that Flynn embodies, channeling a "Piper at The Gates of Dawn" era Barrett on a healthful binge of fruits and nuts where LSD once dominated. Food, or lack of, is a major theme working throughout. "Leftovers", with a catchy melodic hook, speaks of scraps of secondary food as if detailing a choice of sexual preference from yesterday's buffet table,- "Leftovers is what I want, don't need no fine cuisine, give me a dime for bacon rind, or slip me some of that old sardine". "Cold Bread", sounds like a deadly and dietic dinner with Donovan while soaking up the atmosphere of a decadent ally, with an intro that copies exactly the start of Steve Earle's "Copperhead Road", - "Spend your drinking nights with me, Cold bread we have". The sing-a-long "Tickle Me Pink", with its spirited vocal rally, as if alarming passer-byes of said Salvation street band, seems a shed tear and a maniacal giggle to the great Floydian, - "Pray for the people inside your head, for they won't be there when you're dead". "Sally" is a striking and dramatic Euro folk jig using traditional love song aesthetics to describe what seems the disintegration of a same sex relationship, - "I'm a plow and you're a furrow, I'm a fox and you're a burrow, I'm a weed and you're a rose, you're a man, and I'm alone.".

Johnny Flynn's "A Larum", (the title is in reference to a Shakepearean note describing action occuring off-stage), is a rather astounding debut album of quiet rebellion and adolescent immaturity evolving into adult pride. It bursts with musical and lyrical confidence like a smirking boy mermaid on harp merrily crashing ships into rocks."

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