Marc Carroll

Posted in Dust Of Rumour - reviews on 20/10/2010

Dust Of Rumour

The Big Issue

Irishman Carroll's path has taken him from Dublin to London and back, then onto America and Los Angeles, where this collection of big melodic songs, his 4th album was recorded. The sheer quality and delivery should see off lesser talents.

Posted in Dust Of Rumour - reviews on 20/10/2010

Dust Of Rumour

Folk Roundabout

The Dublin singer-songwriter’s latest offering presents a heady 32 minutes of music (eight new songs and two instrumental pieces). It starts out with two tracks’ worth of typically burnished, jangle-ridden 12-string folk-rock, thereby continuing in the tradition Marc originally established with his fine 2003 album Ten Of Swords; Now Or Never in particular could easily pass for a lost Byrds number. The chiming, ringing Always then quietens the pulse a bit, after which Marc springs some further textural surprises with the darker, moodier Against My Will, where a string arrangement is pitted against a rugged vocal delivery that’s even more McGuinn-like in its folky intensity. As the album progresses, it becomes ever more apparent that Marc’s writing has in the intervening years since Ten Of Swords developed an even sharper focus, taking on a more thoughtful and philosophical demeanour generally. The powerful tread of the heavy, gruffly Dylanesque What’s Left Of My Heart, a melancholy anthem with touches of hammering Bunnymen rhythms and pulsing electric guitars, is addictive and makes for another standout, whereas the elusive, dreamlike Illusion And I forms a kind of spacey cosmic prelude to the catchy Petty-like rock of You Just Might Be What I’m Waiting For. The pounding upbeats of A Dark And Lucky Night signal the close of a brave and belated return to recording for Marc, a totally self-sufficient triumph which ought by rights to bring him considerable acclaim.

Posted in Dust Of Rumour - reviews on 20/10/2010

Dust Of Rumour

MusicOMH (4 Stars)

The supermarket record buyer's loss is the music lover's gain, because the Dublin-born Carroll just keeps getting better and better. Dust Of Rumour is his fourth album and eclipses such previous gems as Ten Of Swords (2003) and World On A Wire (2005).

Written in Los Angeles, Carroll's new home, but recorded in the UK with engineer Adi Winman and mixer Graham Sutton (vital cogs in the Irishman's sound), Dust Of Rumour is shot through with the kind of wide-eyed optimism that America instils in young songwriters. Carroll once again handles most instrumental duties, save the odd string section here and there, and like its predecessors the album has a cohesive sense of purpose.

Carroll has injected a rockier element into his songs this time around, characterised by the strident opener Love Will Rule Our Hearts. Clocking in at a brief two minutes, the addictive guitar riff is driven home by a marching rhythm that never lets up. The lyrics don't say a lot beyond the sentiments of the title, but it's an atmospheric opening that gets the listener on their toes right away.

The default sound on Dust Of Rumour is late '60s folk rock à la The Byrds, and Now Or Never and You Just Might Be What I've Been Waiting For are glorious pastiches replete with chiming guitars and stacked vocal harmonies. Both tracks sounds like lost outtakes from Teenage Fanclub's Songs From Northern Britain. Yes folks, that good.

Of course, Carroll was famously championed by Bob Dylan and at times on Dust Of Rumour you could swear the old goat has stolen into the studio to provide guest lead vocals. The vocals on the string-laden pop of Always and What's Left Of My Heart have the gravelly charm of late-period Dylan, and although there is an element of hero worship the melodies and lyrics on both tracks more than compensate.

Pleasingly, a vestige of Carroll's Irish folk roots remains in place. Arguably the best track on the album is Against My Will, which is rooted in the sea shanty tradition with some gorgeous strings lifting the song into Celtic nirvana. Elsewhere, the instrumentals The Boy Who Dreamed and Going Home sound like Van Morrison circa Inarticulate Speech Of The Heart, all Celtic atmospherics and misty-eyed strings.

The wistful Illusion And I is a cosmic meander that hints at a future direction if Carroll ever tires of his McGuinn/Dylan fixation, while the closing A Dark And Lucky Night is a balls to the wall anthem that summons up the spirit of Mike Scott in his 'Big Music' phase.

Free of any major label constraints, Marc Carroll has responded with the best album of his short career. Anyone who seriously loves music should repay the man and buy Dust Of Rumour.

Posted in Dust Of Rumour - reviews on 20/10/2010

Dust Of Rumour

Americana, UK (9/10)

Whilst hugely influenced by the Byrds it was apparent that Carroll was a talented songwriter. Since then I have watched his career from the glowing critical reviews of ‘World On A Wire’ through to his latest release, I had feared the worst that Marc had dropped into obscurity – I’m pleased to report that his new record is yet further evidence that he still has the ability and energy to produce superb music. After a four year break he is back with this stunning collection of ten new songs, which starts off with the catchy & glorious ‘Love Will Rule Our Hearts’, next up is the Byrds-influenced chiming guitars of ‘Now Or Never’, Gene Clark would be a proud owner of this song, it’s that good. He shows that despite some career setbacks his song writing is sharp as ever on the superb ‘Always’ - one of the many stand out songs. Even better is the instrumental ‘The Boy Who Dreamed’ which moves into the best track on the record ‘Illusion and I’. Vocally & lyrically we find Carroll at the top of his game. The record closes on a thoughtful note the instrumental ‘Going Home’ with its Beach Boys harmonies and the upbeat ‘A Dark & Lucky Night’. Will this record break him to a bigger audience? Who knows, but songs of this calibre deserve to be heard.

Posted in Dust Of Rumour - reviews on 20/10/2010

Dust Of Rumour

Powerpop Overdose

The excellent Irish songwriter and musician Marc Carroll after the diversion of his last Dylanesque last album, has returned to the pop field once more on his strikingly excellent Dust Of Rumour. While his debut was effortlessly power pop, for this latest album he’s added an extra sixties shimmer that is probably due to hanging out with The Quarter After in LA half the year. He plays nearly everything on this fine inventive album and is a dab hand at writing one great song after another so how can this album be anything other than a great listen.

Posted in Dust Of Rumour - reviews on 20/10/2010

Dust Of Rumour

NetRhytms

While those wanting more of the ringing Byrdsian Rickenbacker folk rock that characterised Ten Of Swords won’t be disappointed by the Dublin singer-songwriter’s latest, it does find him exploring lands far beyond the familiar, often with a much darker palette. So, where Now Or Never could have stepped straight out of the classic McGuinn catalogue, the opening Love Will Rule Our Hearts has a more strident marching rhythm and rockier muscle carrying his burred vocals forwards while A Dark And Lucky Night summons the more anthemically melancholic side of Mike Scott, one of two instrumentals Going Home is a brief excursion into orchestral Celtic mist and Illusion And I a blissful cosmic drift across the twinkling night sky on Brian Wilson vapour trails.

However, it’s inevitably going to be the Dylan/McGuinn axis that will pin back most ears, and few capture the sound and spirit as well as Carroll. Now Or Never may be the high water mark, but it’s only a cat’s whisker distance between that, the gravelly voiced What’s Left Of My Heart and the jangling You Just Might Be What I’ve Been Waiting For while Against My Will could be an Irish veined shanty that stowed away aboard McGuinn’s Cardiff Rose. It’s taken him for years and various label hiccups to get this self-released and virtually entirely self-played album out into the world. It would be nice to think the world would show its appreciation.