The Water - Colin Macintyre [Mull Historical Society] Album Review

Colin Macintyre

Album Review

Colin Macintyre is the artist formerly known as Mull Historical Society. It's been tempting, many times while I've been listening to his debut album under a new moniker, to refer to this as a solo album, but that's actually misleading. Colin Macintyre IS Mull Historical Society - a band delightful for their unusual lyrics and quirky instrumentation. For that reason alone, it is with some dissappointment that 'The Water' ditches much of the outlandish quirk in favour of a more basic form of indie rock.

The album's largely composed of guitar numbers, with Macintyre's distinctive voice telling you that this is still a Mull Historical Society product, despite of the change of name. Indeed, the first track - 'You're a Star' promises a return to expectations with an unusual array of instruments creating the epic intro. Unfortunately, after this promising start, the album continues in the form of solid, if unremarkable, guitar indie rock. There are occasional highlights, like the fine use of the trombone in "I can I will", but for the most part the only area that the album stands out of the ordinary is Macintyre's vocals, which often sound out of place against such guitar rock effects.

Perhaps the biggest dissappointment here is that, despite Mull Historical Society suffering badly from the law of deminishing returns on each album outing, they have always had fantastic singles. 'How 'bout I Love you More?' off 'Hope' was a fantastic singalong favourite, and 'The Final Arrears' is a favourite of mine from while I was at University. Here though, there's nothing that stands out particuarly as a likely single - there's nothing catchy enough to be irresistable, and nothing with enough depth to be one for the indie collectors. Although the album is more solid as a whole, I think I prefer a handful of killer tracks, followed by forgettable numbers than an album that trundles along, leaving me unable to list the memorable tracks that I need to add to friends' mixtapes. The exception to this (though not exactly single material) is the album's closing track "Pay Attention to the Human" which provides a marvelous, thought provoking end to an album seriously in need of inspiration. But even this is more down to the guest appearence of veteran left wing icon Tony Benn, who provides a spoken poem over the end of the album. Still, it's a masterstroke providing the voice of Glastonbury's Leftfield tent as the last sound you hear on the album, as it gives you the impression the piece of music was something magnificent. The role of reviewer ensures that this illusion is shortlived as replaying only leads to dissappointment.

The sad conclusion of this is that The Water is just an average album, with nothing really standing out for it. In many ways, in the case of a quirky talent like Macintyre, being confined to a mediocre review should be a bigger slap in the face than getting panned - at least then you could say that you'll either love it or hate it. Here an indifferent shrug is all that this reviewer can muster.

Alan Martin