Hobby Jingo by Keiron Phelan & Peace Signs - Gare du Nord Records [GDNCD041]

Hobby Jingo

Keiron Phelan & Peace Signs

A 13 track alternative album (37m 46s) — released November 13th 2020 on Gare du Nord Records

#alternative #alternative

Keiron Phelan and Peace Signs are delighted to bring you the summer album that never was. Didn't have a proper summer? Didn't think so. Stage it now, with Hobby Jingo.

Songs about candy floss, cinnamon, Imogen, becoming your own perfumery, new best friends, long lost loves, winning Eurovision, faking your own Moon landing, juvenile poetry and the Kaiser Wilhelm the Second guide to romantic relationships.

Following on from 2018's critically lauded eponymous debut, Keiron Phelan maintains his lyrical Neil Hannon-with-attitude posture, ups the Soul quota and heads straight for the Pop jugular. Sophisticated songcraft with flavours of Donovan, Bacharach, 'London Boys' Bowieand even a hint of Abbey Road Fabs, with some harder to define Radio 2-style pop classicism. Kinksesque acoustic swagger meets with Neo-New Romantic melodicism. Phelan's Scott Walker-warm baritone hails hello to Stephen Duffy and sits atop bossa nova rhythms and music hall waltzes.

Two eclectic cover versions comprise a revisit to Aphrodite's Child's pensively emotive 'Break' and a transformation of Bill Fay's gentle 'Goodnight Stan' via Rachmaninov piano into a flamboyant Suede style ballad. In Hobby Jingo's darker moments Marianne Faithful and Marc Almond loiter, with intent, around the corner.

Peace Signs is an album that's easy to enjoy, full of gorgeous arrangements, lyrically rich and melodic, but also full of surprise. It's a record that blurs the lines between the personal and the political, takes serious subjects and sceptical sideways glances, adds a little humour and puts them into gorgeously arranged pop songs. A highly recommended release. - Harmonic Distortion Previous album review

5/5 An album of delightful surprises. Bristling with outre, all star indie talent, Peace Signs is as witty as it is charming, as wry as it is inventive. - Shindig! Previous album review

Phelan is a songwriter whose melodies are uplifting. Neil Hannon with a hint of Bill Fay's wisdom. - Mojo Previous album review

Long-term fans of Phelan’s work with littlebow, State River Widening and Smile Down Upon Us will be aware of the breadth of his influences and the diverse scope of his output. What is so impressive about Peace Signs is how he has condensed his preoccupations into a coherent and immediately accessible set of songs without jettisoning any emotional or melodic freight. It is by turns fun and moving, and always exceptionally executed. - Third Ear Previous album review

8/10 It’s full of lovely songs, charmingly sung by Phelan with deceptive whimsy masking some serious intent. This organic, ‘songwriter-ly’ pop is great. - Norman Records Previous album review

Musically Peace Signs is so lush and laid-back in a summery '60s psych way that it should be the exact thing DJs play on their ‘Hangover Café’ radio shows. Whatever might have happened on Friday and Saturday nights, Keiron Phelan can obviously set the world right through Peace Signs come Sunday. - Pennyblack Previous album review

7/10 Peace Signs is a mature and complex album, a project that embodies all of Phelan's talents in an exemplary way. From refined and crepuscular songs in a folk-soul key to melancholic and nocturnal piano ballads. - Ondarock Previous album review

(6th best Album of 2018) Peace Signs is the kind of album that gets better with every listen. Phelan's certainly got a way with a melody, every song elevated by an enticing hook or two, hitting just as hard when presented in instrumental as vocal form. Don't be surprised to find them swirling in your head long after the disc's done. - Textura Previous album review

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