Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating * * * *
It could be the mantra of many a shady Government or perhaps state controlled media in any part of the world, yet for Glasgow band Don’t Shoot, their follow up to the debut E.P. Wonderkid with a tremendously exciting and fully developed sounding album That’s The Truth Even If It Never Happened.
Glasgow’s legitimate claim to be the powerhouse of Scottish music has never really been in much doubt; the gentility may lie further to the East, it may straddle the capital like a sore at times and at others gleam like newly scrubbed skin and yet the beat lays firmly in the heartlands of the Clyde and the West coast of that narrow stretch of land that hides a million dreams and a million more misgivings.
In Don’t Shoot the truth sits proudly in amongst the great bands that have made music from the North of the U.K. so popular and fascinating to listen to. Like Liverpool, Newcastle or any port city, the heartbeat of the populace is paced by what it has absorbed over the last couple of centuries as pulses quickened by a different sun infuse the lives and give them an altered perspective on the world. The music is earthy, it snarls with impatience to get things changed and yet offers a truth that cannot be found in the more upmarket joints and districts in the country.
In Jonny Kirwan’s vocals sits a distinct dichotomy, the harmony he finds with the rest of the bands output, colliding beautifully with Anna Doody’s own vocals and Fearghal McMahon’s guitar and placing itself comfortably in the rhythm and blasting growl of Emmett Cleary’s drums and Corrie McCusker’s bass.
In tracks such as Dance With Sincerity, Bye Bye Blue, the outstanding Epic and Sleepwalkers the music catches fire, it explodes with fury and yet behind it sits a certain type of majesty, a moment of glory that is unnerving and hard to shake off, as if the graves of a 1000 soldiers of past battles have opened up and the clash of sword upon bleached white bone is heard across the land. It is the sound of generosity and commitment and one that does them proud.
That’s The Truth Even If It Never Happened is a landmark for the band, a sentiment in which Time follows in its wake but will struggle to ever break the bond formed between band and listener.
Ian D. Hall