{"product_id":"olan-monk-songs-for-nothing","title":"Olan Monk - Songs For Nothing","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eSongs for Nothing\u003c\/em\u003e was written upon Olan Monk’s return to the west coast of Ireland. The album is imbued with the influence of sean-nós singing, Irish language songs in the “old style” that often proclaim tales of love, loss and landscape; and also heavily indebted to the late Sinéad O’Connor’s confessional songwriting. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eReconstructing these influences through their unique perspective has resulted in a fragmentary album veering between co laged pop, machinic rock and slow airs, “dedicated to Conamara and all who have called it home”. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe western, Atlantic-facing edge of Ireland has a particular feeling and energy, one that permeates the release: the granite pulsates, the ocean and sky reflect intensities, seaweed rots on shingle shores, plants bloom, ancient trees come up for air from the drowned forest in Galway Bay, the sun splinters through the low clouds. The album’s title suggests a one-way transaction, an offering to the listener expecting nothing in return, but also a devotion to nothingness; and the realm of infinite possibility that springs from its we l: singing out into a sparse landscape, which once was home to long-lost forests and communities.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA departure from Olan Monk’s previous, more electronic work, the instrumental arrangements of \u003cem\u003eSongs for Nothing\u003c\/em\u003e delve deeper into the \"descriptor (coined by Irish writer Eoin Murray, Anois Ós Ard), with elements of shoegaze, witch house, cloud rap and Irish traditional music bleeding through the wals of the studio. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cem\u003eSongs for Nothing\u003c\/em\u003e, in melding influences old and new feels at times absurd, but never ironic; it is from the heart, and its respect for song traditions and dedication to process are felt in two arrangements of older songs embracing this new trajectory: “Fate (Reprise)” is an earlier recording reimagined as a doomer ballad with Maria Somerville singing in a duet, and “Amhrán Mhaínse” is a Conamara anthem slowed down as a duo of accordion performed by Peadar Tom Mercier accompanied by heavy guitar drones. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFolding in other Irish neo-traditional expressionists and experimentalists, the record also features Michael Speers, Dylan Kerr, Aindriú De Buitléir, Risteárd O'hAodha and Róisín Berkeley. The addition of the tin whistle across the album, fu l of intention, captures the uncomfortable relationship between our love as a people for our traditions with a long-standing alienation from our own language and culture. Songs For Nothing rejects today’s disconnect with this heritage; they ca l for us to collectively work our way back out of this void. \u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AD 93","offers":[{"title":"LP","offer_id":53021643735382,"sku":"MRM-02451","price":24.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1000\/6088\/9430\/files\/769eae33cccc98c1b49da5624076cb7a.jpg?v=1775199717","url":"https:\/\/monorailmusic.com\/products\/olan-monk-songs-for-nothing","provider":"Monorail Music","version":"1.0","type":"link"}