Johnny Flynn – A Larum
Posted by AlMachine on Wednesday, June 18, 2008

This is basically pretty poster boy Johnny Flynn, trying to make folk hip and trendy. It’s perfectly pleasant with singles ‘the box’ and ‘tickle me pink’ both being reasonably upbeat with enough charm that you might just break into a little jig. There’s fiddles banjos and ukuleles and at times it’s reminiscent of Nick Drake, but what lets this set of songs down is the track ‘Wayne Rooney’ which makes you want to cringe. It’s also an indication that Flynn isn’t really a folky, and this is a persona he’s adopted for this album; you sense that he’s trying a little bit too hard to relate to the younger generation and that including a track such as this will make the album that little bit cooler.

There are strengths, with live favourite ‘The Wrote And The Writ’ standing out as does ‘Hong Kong Cemetry’ which has a drunken ‘Ed Harcourt’ vibe about it.

Being cynical, I find it rather frustrating that there’s no mention of Flynn’s backing band ‘The Sussex Wit’ on the albums cover and that here he’s being marketed as a solo artist. Also the general nature of the tunes is a little too upbeat; I need my music to be a little bit more morose, but then i’m probably outside the target age bracket that this is being aimed at!

Greg Thomas

6/10

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