Album Review

Marc Carroll – Dust of Rumour

• 4th Jul 2009

Dust of Rumour is Dublin born Marc Carroll’s third album. His previous two efforts succeeded in getting critical acclaim but this unfortunately was not transferred into record sales. His third album deserves both.

Dust of Rumour is a thoroughly enjoyable listen dripping with jangly west coast guitars, Beach Boys style harmonies and some great choruses topped off with a dollop of good old Irish grit. Ideal listening for lazy summer afternoons more suited to the cruising of beaches in the Mediterranean than a quick stroll alongside the Liffey. These range of views are somewhat alien to us Irish folk, but it does allow us to kick back, watch the rain sheet down incessantly and pretend we are somewhere else.

Marc’s influences range from the obvious to the less obvious: an nod to The Beach Boys, The Byrds, Simon and Garfunkel & Tom Petty are foremost. But there are dashes of Crowded House, folky Zeppelin and The Eagles thrown in for good measure. Despite this array of influences it is Marc’s soaring vocals that make it stand out and not sound like a mish-mash of all things Americana. It’s a slickly produced record and features a wide array of instrumentation with use of strings particularly prominent.

The album gets off to a cracking surfy start with ‘Love Will Rule Our Hearts’. A lovely snappy little tune featuring some nice tremolo guitar and great vocal harmonies all crammed into 2 minutes. ‘Now or Never’ continues in the same vain. Current single ‘Always’ slows the tempo a little and features some more melancholic lyrics compared to the opening two songs. It is a decent tune however maybe not the most befitting to choose as a lead single. More impressive is the folk/rootsy ballad of ‘Against My Will’ coupling melancholic harmonies and a beautiful, if despondent outro. Marc throws in a nice little instrumental ditty before the album’s other stand out track ‘What’s Left Of My Heart’.

The second half of the album flits from the ethereal ‘Illusion and I’ and ‘Going Home’ back to where we started with the Byrds influenced ‘You Just Might Be What I’ve Been Waiting For’. An enjoyable listen closes with the impressive ‘A Dark and Lucky Night’ – the album’s longest song featuring some decorous percussion and yet more soaring vocals, harmonies and strings.

Although quite short, it’s a thoroughly enjoyable listen with only 8 full length songs. This however is advantageous and results in a great summer time soundtrack that will be taking a place in my car CD collection and hopefully many others.