There doesn’t seem to be much interviews promoting the album yet, but here’s one on culch.ie, there are numerous news items though and the best is from Oxfam, who reused the milk photo from 2005.

CD of the Week: OLIVER COLE We Albatri EMI Ireland * * * * *
Here’s an interesting proposition for the listener and a challenge for the songwriter: how do you make a worthwhile solo life for yourself following some semi-successful years in a much-loved band?

Most artists make the mistake of “reinventing” themselves to the point that they are unrecognisable, their need to be different totally at odds with who and what they really are.

Which brings us to Oliver Cole. Cole used to be in Turn , an Irish rock band of no small note but one that failed to ring even medium-sized bells with this critic. Following what appears to have been a fallow, frustrating period in both his creative and personal life, Cole relocated to Frieburg, Germany, with a fresh approach to songwriting and new topics to write about.

The result of his labours, the abstractly titled We Albatri , is not so much a return to form (and, thankfully, nothing so futile as a reinvention) but the introduction to a virtually new songwriter. In short, We Albatri is stunning.

Let’s tease it out a little bit. The album’s opener, What Will You Do? , initially blends Cheap Trick with The Beatles, but gradually comes across as a whirling, swirling piece of original power pop. Oh My Girl, Spotlight and Close Your Eyes channel the soul and spirit of Elliot Smith; the latter song, in particular, hits all the right mellow and mournful notes (and benefits from a suave string arrangement by Ken Rice).

Other tracks, such as Little Bad Dream, Drug Song, Spotlight and Moth’s Wing , are indicative of a songwriter, perhaps typically and inevitably, drawing from a well of emotional and lifestyle screw-ups. As Cole sings in Drug Song : “There’s not a way that I can say to you what I have been through . . . I don’t want anyone to see me like I am right now, I’m not so proud . . . I lost myself in the pull and push.”

Cole’s memorably tuneful melodies (best exemplifed by the graceful closing track, Moth’s Wing ) are a perfect counterbalance to the occasional self-contempt, self-doubt and sheer oppressiveness of life’s liabilities. But Cole comes across as someone who can look them in the face and walk away the winner. And in a sense, this is what We Albatri is: absolutely victorious. See olivercole.ie

Download tracks: What Will You Do, Close Your Eyes, Moth’s Wing
TONY CLAYTON-LEA

He’s had a little help from his friends – most notably Graham Hopkins, Gavin Fox and Bellie-boys Noonan and Crosby – but this is very much Cole’s own statement. Hopefully it’ll get the Turn albatross off his neck (the title track being named after Cole’s mistaken belief that the plural of which is ‘albatri’).

It opens with the chirpily familiar ‘What Will You Do?’, the Kells-born singer sounding like the lost fifth Beatle. ‘Close Your Eyes’ is a gorgeously melancholic ballad that wouldn’t be out of place in a 1980s youth disco slow set. Utilising harmonica and steel pedal guitars, the catchy, driven ‘Drug Song’ (love being the drug in question) is a real old country music foot-stomper: “Can’t do without it now, it’s every night/ and I feel wiped out/ and I don’t know why.” As with the majority of these ten songs, love is the drug Cole’s speaking of.

‘Spotlight’ is a short and bittersweet ballad about a moment of clarity in the aftermath of a relationship break-up: “You were never honest with me/ And I was all too blind to see/ That you were changing all the time/ But then a spotlight came on somewhere/ To illuminate everything/ Cast a shadow that wasn’t there before.”

Nothing new here but, it’s open, unpretentious, heartfelt, honest, tuneful and true: this is the Coleface of timeless love, loss and lament.

Olaf Tyaransen
Rating: 3.5 / 5

In the not so bargain category 7digital also have the ‘Oh My Girl’ single for €1.49, which is €1.29 on iTunes, however on iTunes you can also buy the ‘Want it the Same’ b-side which is strangely missing from 7digital, Amazon etc.

01. What Will Yo Do?
02. Oh My Girl
03. Too Many People
04. Close Your Eyes
05. We Albatri
06. Little Bad Dream
07. Drug Song
08. Spotlight
09. Need You Strong
10. Moth’s Wing

11. Life’s Great Advice (iTunes bonus track)

The pre-orders for We Albatri on digital download sites such as Amazon and iTunes has begun and you can also listen 30 seconds or so previews of the 10 songs (11 on iTunes).

]]> http://www.turnwebsite.com/news/?feed=rss2&p=28 http://www.turnwebsite.com/news/?p=27 http://www.turnwebsite.com/news/?p=27#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:21:05 +0000 admin http://www.turnwebsite.com/news/?p=27 The dates for Oliver Cole’s tour around Ireland have been posted on his Myspace page, as well as these gigs Oliver will also play in Tower Records at 1pm Friday 26th to support We Albatri’s release, and then appear on the Late Late Show on RTE that night.

The Sunday Tribune also had a short interview with Oliver about his fantasy band and featured the new Nirvanaesque promo shot.

14 April - Set Theatre, Kilkenny
15 April - Dolans Warehouse, Limerick
16 April - The Sky And The Ground, Wexford
17 April - Roisin Dubh, Galway (main room, supporting Stornoway)
22 April - Cyprus Avenue, Cork
23 April - Roisin Dubh, Galway
24 April - Electric Avenue, Waterford

Here’s the video for “What Will You Do?” which has been just recently been uploaded by EMI to Youtube. It certainly is unique.

Update 15/3: It appears the Youtube version is private at the moment as the video is now exclusive on MySpace, where Oliver Cole is a featured artist on the Irish version.

Oliver will also be playing at the Phantom First Friday gig, this Friday 5th March, in the Academy.

The schedule for the Other Voices TV shows have been announced and Oliver’s set is not among them, disappearing into limbo it seems.

Last Swim
Cats Cradle
Gaps
Vox Humana
Killing Fields