Album Review

Kieran Leonard – Out Of Work Astronaut

• 22nd Aug 2012

Singer songwriter Kieran Leonard is perhaps best known for his single Jerusalem, which was used by director Ridley Scott as a sound track to his documentary “Life In A Day”. The song became something of an underground anthem, bringing Leonard’s music to a wide audience.

Leonard has toured extensively, supported the Libertines in their reunion concerts, and has singles and EPs to his name prior to this first full length release. His lyrics are poetic and often political, and his musical style is reserved. There’s a charisma to the delicately phrased vocals but the power comes from the words themselves rather than the delivery.

The best track on the album is the lead single Harold Pinter Is Dead, with Leonard’s lovely world weary vocal strong over piano and guitar backing. This lament to youth lost is powerful (“Henry Thoreau and Walt Whitman couldn’t put my soul back together again”) and yet delicate, and there is a lovely soft guitar solo in the middle too.

Ouija Board is also very good, a haunting and atmospheric track full of great sound effects. Vampire shows the humorous side of Leonard’s lyrical approach: who wouldn’t love a dark song about a five year old with a vegetarian vampire for an imaginary friend?

There are other decent tracks on the album too. The opening Oh My is lively and entertaining. From the slower tracks, The After Show has an ominous beat and some great bluesy guitar while How The West Was Won? is a fine lament that with some lovely lyrical flourishes (“You sold your soul and bought it back – minus the 17 percent happiness tax.”) The album closes with Lost Weekend, a slow and moving relationship song with Leonard’s vocals backed by an acoustic guitar.

Kieran Leonard is a man with a great deal to say and he has the undoubted ability to say it in an entertaining and thought provoking manner. This is a decent debut album and I’m sure there is a lot more to come from a bright and emerging talent.