Mull It Over 048: Is This All?
Back to basics this week. The local acts currently in my rotation - featuring Neil Brogan, Mark Hegan and FRANKLIN. Also - I single-handedly take down The Beatles.
So, after listening to 153 singles and 83 albums for a (not so) top-secret project over the past two months, I’ve finally returned to my previously scheduled listening habit of running through The Beatles’ entire discography and trying to really understand what Burial was doing in 2006; I feel like a changed person. It is possible that all of the 83 albums I just listened to are on a par with, if not better than those first few Beatles records. Don’t ‘@’ me. Or do, I could do with the traffic, frankly.
I found myself halfway through Beatles For Sale listening to a song called ‘Mr. Moonlight’ wondering if it would be worth just deleting Spotify right now or going back to listen to The Rolling Stones’ Hackney Diamonds from 2023 or Ronan Keating’s debut solo album? All three offered a far more alluring prospect than listening to ‘Eight Days a Week’. Which is ironic, considering that’s how long each week feels listening to Lennon and McCartney prang on about holding hands on every other track. Was this really groundbreaking at the time? At the same time as The Kinks?
Current slaps
But I digress. I have indeed been listening to a lot of local music recently. Pretty standard, you’d assume for someone who literally publishes a newsletter focused solely on this exact topic. True, but as mentioned I’ve been on a secret industry mission of which I will reveal all at a later date. And for all my troubles with The Beatles, on the other side of it I have found myself fully immersed in the absolutely brilliant music released this year from our punch-above-its-weight music rich region. From glitch to goth, war-jazz to jangle-pop, I was genuinely taken aback by some of the stuff I’ve been hearing. So, let’s get this thing back to basics and mull over some of the current local artists appearing in my rotation. Dig it -
Mark Hegan - First a Whisper, Then a Shout EP
I don’t know much about Mark Hegan. I do know that when he pops up to self-promote his music on my Instagram feed, it is quite arresting how genuine this young whippersnapper appears to be. This is pop/rock/alternative music with a purposeful polish. As an unashamed fan of the slick adult contemporary ‘product’ that Goo Goo Dolls flogged in the immediate aftermath of Iris across albums like Gutterflower and Let Love In, this hits right down that same middle. A cover of Springsteen’s Stolen Car to close out the record is both bold and fun. And perhaps a nod to something deeper in the arsenal. A true ‘watch this space’ artist.
Neil Brogan - Neil Brogan Band
This album cover has to be terrible in a tongue-in-cheek/Pavement kind of way. As is the slightly subversive album title ‘Neil Brogan Band’ by, you guessed it - Neil Brogan. I only gain more confidence in this assessment of the jarring package I see before me from Girls Names and Sea Pinks alumnus Brogan - after listening to the album inside out on my daily work commute. Ironic, cute, funny, exciting and entirely brilliant, this is another one that just can’t miss for me at the minute. The album has been described as jangle-pop but this on the very loose side. Recorded live in one day at the famed Start Together Studios in Belfast last summer, I’m scolding myself for missing the launch show in McHughs back in May. This flew entirely under my radar - but take my advice and put your AirPod Pros in right now and click the Bandamp link above if, like me, listening to The Beatles made you delete Spotify.
This was The Irish News’ album of the week back when it was released in April. Do they really have their finger on the pulse more than I do?
Franklin - Tiny Chairs (preview)
I love Franklin. I wrote about their last two singles Bebby and B.A.T.O.F. last year with deserved, uncompromising praise. I know this because when I asked ChatGPT to tell me what they had been up to in that time it spat my own articles out back to me. That’s what you get for laziness, I suppose. Touché, Sam Altman. The reason, however that I wasn’t sure what they had been up to is simple - it’s been one full year since they released any music. So hearing from the lads this week, giving a heads-up that they finally have new music on the way, was very welcome.
Tiny Chairs will be the third single from these sad punk (‘sunk’?) rascals and upon listening to it I realised why I like it so much - it’s because I don’t usually like music like this. Pop-punk shouldn’t really be earnest, should it? I know you’re immediately pointing out Green Day’s era defining social commentary rock masterpiece American Idiot! and perhaps Blink 182’s recent single ‘One More Time’. Or even their classic ‘I Miss You’. OK, point rendered invalid. What I’m trying to say is there’s something really beautiful in the way these lads marry happy, guitar driven melodies with frontman Kevin Hillick’s still soaring, emotional knee-to-the-stomach vocal. And it’s LOUD.
You can’t listen to it yet. But let me give you the juice:
Franklin - Tiny Chairs, released 17th September
Live: Franklin with Some Remain and Silk at Ulster Sports Club, Belfast on 20th September. Tickets
Thanks for reading issue 48 of Mull It Over. This edition was meant to be solely focused on the return of Belfast’s Culture Night but I got sidetracked early doors in my off-piste ranting about The Beatles. Don’t fret, however. There will be an emergency newsletter published next week which will feature all the best musical highlights from Culture Night’s return. It is so brilliant to see it back, and I wouldn’t miss it.
I’ll catch you on the next one.
PS. I have begun to update the official Mull It Over Substack Playlist again over on Spotify (I didn’t delete it). So you can find any tunes mentioned in this article added below. Enjoy.