Intuitive melodies, steam-driven rhythms and bracing guitars provide the bedrock of The Dykeenies sound. Add to that the plaintive, broken-but-not-bowed croon of Brian Henderson and you have all the ingredients for the intoxicating, aural love potion that is_ ‘New Ideas’_.
Originally available through King Tuts’ Recordings in summer 2006, this track now receives a full-commercial release. And a good thing it is too for The Dykeenies, as this song deserves the widest possible audience. Three minutes of streamlined pop-punk with added panache, ‘New Ideas’ opens in a barrage of vigorous guitar and enthused handclaps. The pace builds determinedly before exploding into the sumo-sized chorus; naysayers trampled underneath cascading guitar and fevered rhythms.
Lyrically fragmented and impressionistic, the pervading mood - defiance spiked by doubt - is conveyed as much by Henderson’s warm brogue as the words. Most impressively there is not the slightest surfeit of sound here: a size-zero trim tune, ‘New Ideas’ gallops gazelle-like towards its brash call-and-response finale. A seductively sweet knock-out.
-
8Francis Jones's Score