Fionn Regan - 'The Bunkhouse Vol. I: Anchor Black Tattoo'

Hailing from Bray, Irish singer-songwriter, Fionn Regan this week releases his fourth album. An incredible feat in terms of his thirty years - even more so, this album is no exception to the strength and abilities of Fionn Regan.

Regan released his debut EP, ‘Slow Wall’ in 2002 and has since received critical acclaim, especially following his 2006 debut album release, ‘The End of History’ which went onto receive a Mercury nomination.

The album comes just a year after the release of ‘100 Acres of Sycamore’, however, this album is Regan’s most stripped back record to date.

‘The Bunkhouse Vol. 1: Anchor Black Tattoo’, is set for release 28^th January 2013. In a somewhat Justin Vernon esque nature, the record was self-recorded with a 4-Track and a single microphone in his Bunkhouse studio.

It seems Regan has taken this album as an oath to his earlier works, displaying core strength of an artist returning to his roots, back to the essense of what it is he does, oh so well. Talking about the album, Fionn explains how he made the record following his support slot to Fiest, playing huge venues but feeling ‘very much at home on the stage’. It was this that led to what he describes as an ‘Irish punk album’.

With his hushed, folky vocals, Regan stays consistent to his homegrown paths throughout, with highlights including album opener, ‘St Anthony’s Fire’. With the addition of subtle slide licks, so simplistic yet so charmingly effective, resonating warmth through his ever-crisp vocals.

‘Mizen to Malin’, sounds darker like a somewhat movie soundtrack in the back streets of Paris, yet more closely to home citing themes from the Irish Sea.

Equipped with his trusty acoustic guitar, Regan effortlessly boasts orchestral steepness, without the bodies, it’s just himself and the ever-playful bass notes and guitar plucking evident throughout.

‘Midnight Ferry Crossing’, displays an honest and raw poetic state of mind, as Fionn sings about a lost love, ‘from the stairs to the big smoke, she looked out of the window, barely spoke, some things in life are hold to swallow’, ‘we’ll say our long goodbyes, we’ll cut all of our ties.’

Exposing himself, in a sense of isolation, the result is an emotive, wistful yet dark and simplistic album, all wrapped into one.

It’s a short record enthralling the listener with his trademark melancholy vocals from the first note. There are so many great things about this album but perhaps the best being that it’s Vol 1, meaning there is plenty more where that came from.