I first had the pleasure of listening to Angus McOg back in 2019 when I had the pleasure of reviewing his album ‘Beginners’, I remember comparing the music to Bon Iver, Coldplay and Neil Young so when I realised he had another album in the offering I jumped at it.
Cirrus seems like a grown-up version of Beginners. There are the details that makes his music so engaging, the patience, the space and the haunting calm but added to this comes the subtle addition of strings (opening track ‘Cirrus’ is a fine example of this, it’s poignant piano-led introduction is given life by cleverly written string parts) and an expansion on what McOg – or Antonio Tavoni to give his real name – can do.
There continues to be this push-pull conflict of sitting somewhere between indie-folk and indie-rock but it works, the dreamy 90’s organ tone of ‘Lou’ sounds like something that we would have swayed to at a festival as the sun went down and the alcohol kicked in.
This new acoustic guitar approach reminds me of 00’s singer Badly Drawn Boy and a hint of the indie band Athlete, the songs have that skill of being able to look into you and sounds nostalgic and new at the same time but when you think you’re in for a chilled treat you come across a song like ‘Parts’ with its strummed guitar chorus (straight from the Coldplay book of music) and drum rolls. This is how the second half of the album pans out, it’s drums, piano and catchy tunes (oh, and a surprisingly good trumpet solo on ‘Chances’) all the way until the final track ‘Say My name’ with a haunting piano intro and brass band foundations.
A lot of the fanfare will be around the superbly named ‘Communist Party Party’ with its Kaiser Chiefs-esque guitar riff and straight-as-a-die drum beat, the album is worth hearing for this song alone!
Considering I still struggle to classify the exact genre that is on offer here, I still enjoy the music of this Italian troubadour, if I had to sum it up in one sentence it would be that it’s a mish-mash of pop, indie and folk and is instantly likeable…. Check it out because there are moments of brilliance here.
