DELORECORDS
8/10
While Delorentos’ stumbling climb to a summit-adjacent branch on Ireland’s musical tree has often hit storms, ‘Little Sparks’ looks set to claim the sometimes-unconvincing Dubs a canopy-view branch to themselves. It’s crammed with simple, catchy pop songs laden with emotion; recorded in a refreshingly straightforward, sparse style. Web-favourite ‘Bullet In A Gun’ comes across still stronger on record, and is served up as part of a sensationally catchy early salvo. Lyrics, not hooks, really push the boundaries though: they’re thought provoking and life and love-applicable yet cunningly shimmy around agonizing cliché. Sure, the quality drops off a little as the album progresses, but not before establishing ‘Little Sparks’ as raw, confident, and an early contender for Irish album of the year.
James Hendicott
KEY TRACKS: ‘DID WE EVER REALLY TRY?’, ‘BULLET IN A GUN’, ‘GIVE IT UP NOW’.
FOR FANS OF: Embrace, Thirteen Senses, Doves.
As published in AU Magazine, February 2012