Anna Mullarkey - Falling (2022)

Anna Mullarkey: Falling review — Galway native embraces two genres, but it doesn’t always work. Very few songs are shrouded in mystery, although some are influenced by unusual sources.

When it comes to style and genre, Anna Mullarkey has a foot in two worlds: one in the soft cadences, lively fiddle and accordion wheezes of Irish trad, and the other in ethereal ambient music that lends a futuristic pulse to her sound. In terms of her lyrical output, however, there is no dichotomy: very few songs on the Galway native’s debut album are shrouded in mystery, although some are influenced by unusual sources. The Upside Down takes its cue from Stranger Things, setting a Tori Amos/Kate Bush-style love song (“These cold dark places, where the creatures have no names or no faces / I would go there to find you”) against an eerie dance beat. Holding, written for her mum as she battled cancer, recalls Julie Feeney’s theatrical lilt, entwining piano, cello and banjo. On other tracks, she volleys scathing lines such as “I have come to the conclusion you’re no longer my problem” (Tough Love) and “You’re not worth my time anymore” (on the blurry crackle of Falling Apart) with a pithy grace, while several songs are sung in Irish. Mullarkey moves boldly as she embraces both musical worlds, but the combination doesn’t always work. Songs such as Please and Uisce have their lithe frames rendered clunky by a heavy-handed dance beat usually only heard at 5am in a festival campsite (if you know, you know.) That said, there are several promising buds that may yet blossom on Mullarkey’s future work.