UNSTUCK IN GROOVE
In association with
LUCY ROSE – THIS AIN’T THE WAY YOU GO OUT
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LUCY Rose is back with her fifth studio album, a beautifully honest tribute to her son and the challenges that followed his birth.
This album is quintessential Rose.
Most of the songs are stripped back to her vocals and the piano.
When the singersongwriter sticks to her folksy background, the music is perfect. It’s at once ethereal, rich, wistful and bold, like a modern-day Joni Mitchell CD.
Whatever You Want, a love letter to her son Otis, is a standout track. In typical Rose fashion, she masterfully combines melancholic melodies with upbeat lyrics. The result is tender and joyful. Unfortunately, some songs stray from the template. It’s brave of Rose to attempt some more jazzy, heavily arranged music but these tracks, while not bad, do not meet the high standard set by the others.
8/10 “EVERY executive decision” made by Irish alt-rockers Unstuck is ruled by “how fun” they think it will be.
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Their upcoming record, Songs From Part Two: Part One, is slated for release in May, with the outfit, comprised of school friends Andrew Pierce, Conor Morgan and Dean Bates, teasing out some singles in the meantime.
So far the band has dropped two out of five tracks, having released Scrunchie and Water Tower ahead of the sophomore EP release.
The tracks were recorded at Orc’s Lair studios in August 2023, around the time their debut EP Ointment? came out. The release is the first of two planned from the recording session, split into ‘day songs’ and ‘night songs’.
“It’s a little bit removed from Ointment? songwriting-wise,” guitarist and singer Andrew told The Scene.
“It’s similar to the songs on Ointment?, but the idea with the EP is that this is called Songs From Part Two, Part One and then Songs From Part Two: Part Two is going to come out later on this year because we went into the Orc’s Lair and we recorded a lot of music.
“Not 100 per cent sure of our intentions, but we recorded 10 songs or 11 songs. We thought they were just so clearly an A-side and a B-side.
“Some of them were more upbeat and poppy and the other ones were less upbeat and poppy and a little bit more dour.
“So we decided to split it just straight down the middle with two EPs.
“When we were trying to organise the songs together, we just kind of had this idea that like, some of the songs are day songs and some of the songs are night songs just based on mood.
“A lot of the songs that we write, we’re kind of erratic with what we write in terms of everything kind of sounds like us because it’s articulated through a three-piece.
“But when it comes to writing songs, we don’t really stick too rigidly to one kind of set, like any idea goes when it comes to it.
“And that’s going to be more apparent on these two EPs than it was on the previous EP Ointment?.
“So, yeah, we were trying to get the songs together, it was like some of them are day songs and some of them are night songs. And then Conor went, let’s do that, let’s have day songs and night songs.
“The idea was to originally call them Day Songs and Night Songs, but Conor suggested the EP name, Songs For Part Two: Part One. “I just thought that was the funniest s**t I’ve ever heard in my life. A big thing about this band is that almost every executive decision is ruled by how fun we think it’ll be or how much it makes us laugh. Which in terms of business acumen – weak – but we enjoy it.” The second single of the EP, Water Tower, is out now. Penned by Andrew, the track delves into a “dour year” spent at home in a small parish in Wexford, with the local water tower the “closest thing to a skyline” he could get. “I grew up in a place called Mayglass in Wexford,” Andrew explained.
“In Mayglass, there is a primary school, a church, a graveyard, maybe those are all the amenities. There used to
■ SONGS FOR DAY AND NIGHT: Unstuck lads (also below) be some shops, but they closed down.
“So all I could do when I was a teenager, it was pretty boring in there, I could cycle to some friends, but I didn’t have a car or anything. So the only thing that I seen every single day was the Mayglass water tower, outside this water processing plant.
“But I was unemployed for like a year after dropping out of college, when I was about 18, and that water tower is what I saw every single day.
“And all I could do was go for walks, smoke cigarettes, look at the water tower and just wait for something to happen. I felt like I was just waiting my entire life for something to happen.
“So I think the song Water Tower is kind of a fantasy song. If you listen to the lyrics, it’s just about the water tower growing legs and breathing and moving. I was like, ‘Man if anything would happen to me right now, that’d be amazing.”
■ Songs From Part Two: Part One is out May
17. Singles Scrunchie and Water Tower are out now. Unstuck are putting together a summer tour of Ireland, with dates to be announced.