Fia Rua: Falling Time Review

fiaruaThis is one of those albums that has been knocking around my desk for a while. ‘Falling Time’ is the current album from Galway based experiemental folk artist Eoghan Burke, better known as Fia Rua.

Opening with the title track ‘Falling Time’, an uptempo track with fiddles, guitars, everything you’d expect to hear on a folk album Fia Rua though is a little different as contemporary production creeps in, with little noises and hooks. You’ll be singing this all day.

There are a few guests on the album including Jinx Lennon, who on Shakier, spits out lines like ‘you got to keep it raw, awkward and real if you want to survive the next twenty four years’.

I’m going to to be totally honest here, sometimes I find Irish folk music very confining, I can listen and appreciate it but it would never be the first CD I look for (I blame my Granny). It reminds me of being somewhere where there isn’t a good bus service and I can’t get out.

I can though, recognise good production and good songwriting and Eoghan Burke delivers on both fronts, bringing his brand of folk out of his past and into the current music scene. On this album we see the variation of Burke’s talent with the tender ‘Last Wave’ to the uptempo ‘Walk Away’ with modern production and sometimes full on rock vocals.

If you’re into your folk music, you’d better do yourself a favour and get this album. Fia Rua is probably the most relevant folk artist on the Irish scene right now.