I Have a Tribe: Changing of the Guard - Another warm embrace

Patrick O’Laoghaire’s second record builds on the warmth of his first, and although there might be a “changing of the guard” it is perhaps more an amplifying of O’Laoghaire’s sensibility, with greater attention to detail, and references to the natural world (birds, water, light, land) littered throughout.

The title song frames O’Laoghaire’s rich vocal well, and complemented by piano, we hear about what is “written in the scripture ... written in your face”. Cafe and its sloping drums sounds like Anohni mingling with Jacques Brel, and Teddy’s Song reaches back to a more mellow place, with nice trumpet from Conor O’Brien echoing the jazz-inflections on Fly Like a Bird.

There is a naturalness and looseness to the album, evident on something like Vitruvian Man, referring back to Da Vinci and his exploration of a kind of perfection, reminding us that imperfection might be more human: “I learned to dance because you filled me with wine, each time we meet we seem to have a nice time.”

Plaintiveness abounds, but it is not heavy, with O’Laoghaire encouraging us to more joyful plains, with the guitar on album highlight For Bringing Us Home almost wincing in its delicacy but finding its opposite on the militaristic drums of Sweet Day, and something like Sunshine is dreamily old-fashioned, washed through with a hazy kind of ambience that coaxes and entreats.