Customer Reviews

A Larum

5 star:		(41)
4 star:		(19)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

Johnny Flynn is definitely a talent to keep an ear on. Would I have heard/bought this album had I not gotten it via the Vine program? Probably not. I'm glad I received it, though.

3 stars often seem to fool people. 3 stars isn't trashing something. I consider 3 stars appropriate for a good album. I consider this to be a 3-star album overall, with some great songs throughout, it's just a bit uneven.

Even now after however many listens, my main impression of this album is one of deja vu. I still cannot place the who or where, but there are moments throughout this cd that I feel I've heard before. I don't mean that in a bad way. I don't mean "derivative". I mean Flynn's voice... certain phrases and inflections are tapping on something inside me from 26 or 30 years ago. I get this intense feeling of blurry, impressionistic memories from when I was a little kid. For a guy his age, and considering that I think "white male lyricists/singer/songwriter types under 40 or 45" have churned out some of the most bland, forgettable, uninspired music EVER in the past 10 or 15 years, this hits me as being one heck of an album from this kid.

This is small music for small spaces. I think he'd die a slow death on stage in an arena, big amphitheater or stadium concert setting but would kill in a 200-year-old pub in Europe. I keep thinking of words like troubadour and minstrel with this album. Literate, 21st Century folk tales with heart.

Some of his songs are Jolie Holland-ish, though the album overall isn't at the Escondida, Catalpa or Springtime Can Kill You level.

One of the songs here is begging for the intensity of a Richard Thompson guitar solo but I'll let you figure out which one it is for yourself. 1 of the things that bothers me (though this didn't figure into my number of stars) is that there's alot of packaging but no lyrics. If you're going to write 14 songs with lyrics and include 2 little booklets of liner notes, somewhere there should be some lyrics. I haven't deciphered everything he's said yet, even on some of the songs I really like.

I'll definitely buy his next album or catch him in concert if he comes around. I'll still take Dandelions on Fire by Simone Massaron and Carla Bozulich over this (I can't figure out why it won't let me make a product link even though the cd is available here) but based on recent history, this is as good a collection of songs by a young white dude I've heard in ages. If I owned a record label, I'd have given him this shot, too. He could really grow into something powerful.

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.

I took a shot in the dark choosing Johnny Flynn's "A Larum" from the Vine program to review...certain buzz words in the description: "Folk" "Blues" "Soul" piqued my interest. I'm glad I selected it! It's great! I'm happy to add Johnny Flynn to my eclectic music collection.

The very first track "The Box" is a happy tune even as it is about Death! (How "Irish"! And sure enough it has a rustic Celtic feel.) Thus heartened by a good start I went on to enjoy the whole CD even though it turns out that most of the song ARE about death. The harmonies are lovely and simple, the lyrics are smart; sometimes cynical and sarcastic sometimes soulful...I could definitely picture myself in a warm pub listening to these guys over a pint...there is really no higher praise that that, is there?

Wow! This is a wonderful album. Johnny Flynn reminds me of Billy Bragg, but I don't remember hearing Bragg use the trumpet. This is a folksy album with a hint of blues. I really enjoyed his thoughtful lyrics. I was very surprised by the song "The Wrote and the Writ," clever song about among other things the written word and believe it or not Holy Communion.

This is truly a beautiful, poetic album.

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.

It is time for the nature of music reviews - at least for popular music - to change. There's no need any longer to read a review to help you decide if you want to buy an album. All of these tracks can be heard on various places online - either in part or in full, often in different arrangements, sometimes in video - and the lyrics too are freely available. So you can listen, and read, before you decide whether to buy. The traditional reviewer role of helping you decide whether or not this music will be for you, is redundant. It's time for 'reviewers' of popular music to become critics and commentators, to promote discussion rather than offer guidance. With that in mind, here's Johnny...

Very much part of the current British Folk scene, albeit South African by birth, Flynn is a 25-year old actor, poet and songwriter. He went to Bedales, one of the most expensive private schools in the UK, and has acted in some very prestigious Shakespeare productions. His voice is expressive rather than melodic. He may not quite hit the notes, but he feels them.

The CD insert that is devoted to Flynn (the other insert is devoted to his backing group, The Sussex Wit) rather alarmingly (or a larumingly) cites Shakespeare and Chaucer as his storytelling forebears. Flynn himself says that he has always been interested in "...storytelling as an art form. Real epic storytelling. You hear that in Chaucer, and it's mirrored in traditional folk and in the blues." Quite so, but it's not mirrored in Flynn's own songs. They are not sustained narratives, do not tell a story. They are word pictures -- fragmentary, evocative and sometimes enigmatic. Nothing wrong with that, of course. In fact, they are for the most part fine lyrics, it's just that they are not the stories he seems to think they are, and not of the tradition to which he aspires.

The versions of 'The Box' and 'Tickle Me Pink' (and I think others) are different from the single and EP versions. If you already have the singles versions, you might welcome the changes, as you are getting something new, some added value. Or, if you have not heard the singles versions, you might feel short-changed, as you are not getting the versions that attracted attention originally.

The musical backing is innovative and very satisfying, with wonderful use of discordant strings and prominent drum rolls, and indeed some excellent guitar work from Flynn himself, especially on 'Tunnels'. The album's coda, a brief instrumental (organ) reprise of Shore to Shore, is a nice touch, and a fine way to end the set.

I think it's a shame that The Sussex Wit doesn't get billed on the album cover. Flynn is of course the front man and songwriter, but the band is still a big part of the overall sound. They get their own separate insert, but it would have been nice if they had been given equal billing.
[PeterReeve]

Johnny Flynn is a young Briton (by way of South Africa) whose interesting bio includes Shakespearean acting, and whose influences run the gamut from Bob Dylan to the Pixies. His debut on Lost Highway, one of the most reliable roots/Americana labels, is very promising. He's an impressive singer-songwriter who has been called "Nick Drake with attitude", but to me he sounds as much like a young Richard Thompson, sans the killer guitar (though Flynn is an estimable musician himself, contributing guitar, violin, trumpet, accordion, organ and mandolin to the album). And the influence of early Dylan is very apparent in his finger-picking style and the melodic structure of his folkier songs. His band, The Sussex Wit, provides first-rate vocal and instrumental support, replicating sounds of Appalachia as well as the English folk tradition. At times his lyrics get a bit wordy and moribund, but there's no denying that he is a songwriting force on the verge of greatness.

I'm new to Johnny Flynn, but I was infatuated with this on the first listening and am learning to love it more deeply each time I play it. Gorgeous and folksy, these complex melodies are complemented by his pleasantly moody vocals and intelligent lyrics. Flynn manages to capture a quintessentially British Isles folk sound using instruments both modern and traditional, without sliding into the New Age realm or cheapening his brilliant original compositions with Ye Olde Times nostalgia. This is one of the best albums I've heard all year, and the best from a new artist.