Marc O'Reilly - Human Herdings (2014) Lossless

The first thing that struck me about Marc O’Reilly was his album artwork. The cover for Human Herdings is original and really compliments the album as a whole, title included.

Marc-O-ReillyA native of Co. Waterford, this young Irish artist has made appearances at Glastonbury, Electric Picnic and as far as the shores of California for the Vineyard Festival.

This album has a serious diversity, skilfully melding hard rock, acoustic folk and country blues into one. There’s a real retro sensibility to it, with its layered vocals and sharp guitar. His voice ranges from gravelly Tom Waits-esque growls to more layered and velvety vocals.

This nine track album is an exercise in diversity, each song differing from the last but with a cohesive balance to the collection as a whole. Some songs, like Lighthouse for example, are delicate acoustic pieces, while others like The Wayward Shepard rest on the other end of the scale, with loud rhythmic vocals and electric guitar solos.

My favourite song was Bleed, simply because it had a really addictive beat, and his voice was really at its best here, with high soft vocals and short but dramatic piano solos.