A Larum by Johnny Flynn

A Larum is Johnny Flynn's first album, released in 2008. The album is released under the name Johnny Flynn but it is technically Johnny Flynn and his band, The Sussex Wit, who are pretty ok as folk bands go. The album was considered the 37th best album of 2008, a rather decent achievement I must admit, as folk is not as popular today. Random Fact: It has recently been discovered that the album A Larum is a Shakespearean word meaning 'alarm', it is also said to be an anagram of Laura M aka Laura Marling, a fellow folk singer and friend of Johnny (all folk fans should check her out. Nathan should be reviewing one of her albums soon, she is rather good)

The songs throughout the album are consistently enjoyable, however some tracks lack a certain je ne sais quoi. I’m not sure what that is but some songs definitely lack it and don’t rise to the standard of other songs on the album. The songs that stand out to me are 'The Wrote & The Writ' which is a nicely composed track, with well written lyrics. The other two are 'Tickle Me Pink' and 'Cold Bread'. Both are entertaining, easy to listen and interesting.

However, I have no idea what these songs or most of the songs on the album are actually about, which isn't necessarily a bad thing as it does not seem to reduce their quality. I think that all the songs have some kind of metaphor behind them, with subjective meanings, so different songs may mean different things to different people. But I see no point in trying to decode the philosophical underlining meanings of these songs. I merely want to sit back and get my listen on, and this album seems to allow that. Johnny Flynn also has an interesting voice which is pretty good and suits the music well. It can be slightly monotonous at times but his vocals can really portray the emotion of most of the songs.

A particular track i enjoyed is called 'Shore To Shore (reprise)' which is an instrumental add on to an early song in the album called 'Shore To Shore', it is a rather short yet beautiful piece in my opinion and is played on, what I believe is, an organ which seems to work seemingly well and is a nice way to end the album.

Overall this is a pretty good album with some really good songs. On the other hand, there are some tracks which, while not necessarily bad, don’t seem to rise to the same standard as the best songs, which brings the albums overall quality down slightly. Also in some songs e.g. opening track 'The Box’, the violinist of the band is a little off. It sounds like the player is scraping at the strings, this could put off first time listeners and it seemed to ruin the song for me the first time I listened to it. You do get used to it though, and it happens only rarely throughout the album, although personally I think it shouldn’t have been put in in the first place. However, the album is still enjoyable and fun throughout with imaginative and interesting lyrics and I would be happy to recommend this to any followers of the folk scene as a good album to add to their collection.

Scores (out of 10)

Lyrics: 8/10
Vocals: 7.5/10
Instrumentals: 6.5/10
Album Arrangement: 8/10
Overall: 7/10

Favourite Track: The Wrote & The Writ

By Joshua Owen-Gorza