Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 07/10/2007
The debut album by Irish-born, British-based singer/songwriter
Fionn Regan was first released in the U.K. by ex-
Cocteau Twins bassist
Simon Raymonde's
dream pop imprint
Bella Union, before being picked up for U.S. distribution by the rootsy
alt-country label
Lost Highway. Impressively, it's a good fit for both labels.
Regan keeps one foot in the singer/songwriter tradition -- comparisons to
Damien Rice and
Nick Drake are ubiquitous in his reviews, and for good reason -- but
Regan's interest in specific soundscapes for their emotional resonances is a subtle but important philosophical link to the
Cocteau Twins' sound for sounds' sake aesthetic.
Regan recorded the majority of
The End of History in a disused stone barn, live to a portable recorder. The natural reverb adds warmth to these often skeletal songs, most with little more accompaniment than
Regan's acoustic guitar and practically whispered vocals. The sense of intimacy thus engendered adds weight to songs that might have otherwise seemed ethereally light, but at his best,
Regan proves himself an immensely skilled songwriter. "I have become an aerial view of a coastal town that you once knew" is a startlingly apt image in the lovely lost-love lament
"Be Good or Be Gone," and
Regan's debut single
"Put a Penny in the Slot" is an instant classic ranking with such wry slices of U.K.
folk-rock as
Lloyd Cole and the Commotions'
"Perfect Skin" (right down to
Regan's echoing of
Cole's trademark habit of dropping authors' names in his lyrics,
Paul Auster and
Saul Bellow in this case) and any number of
Richard Thompson's romantic character studies.
The End of History suggests that a major talent may be brewing here.
~Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
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