Ian McGlynn’s music can be described as “lullaby like” and even full of hooks that embrace “warmth” and “waltz” and often has a “patented soaring chorus”.  After listening I can assure you that all of these things are very true, while also being extremely catchy at the same time.

McGlynn caught my ear in the beginning with his fairly recent cover of The National’s “Mistaken for Strangers”.  I mean, as we all know how bloggers like their covers.  I have to admit that I am prone to this phenomena as well.  I think it is interesting to see another view of a particular song and if you actually like the original song, it allows for it to live on if it has started getting worn.

I just wanted to make sure that a man is more than his covers and this piano folk guru is here to show you this on his most recent release “This Is The Sound” from last October.  It is a ballad driven affair full of acoustic guitar, piano, organ with just a splash of glockenspiel.  The glockenspiel doesn’t get the respect it used to, if I had to say.

While I am still ingesting most of McGlynn’s work at this point, I do find it is from someone who is a fan of the craft of song-making.  I get the impression that he looks to include the entire package when recording and puts his heart into the mix and often comes out with what he is creating – indie-pop gems.  You feel like there is supposed to be context to each song, like it is meant as a soundtrack to something or an event…you want to sit back and listen in to something that you just maybe you should be witnessing…

Enjoy the aforementioned cover, alongside two more tracks from last year; one from “This Is The Sound” entitled “Small Town, Big Hearts” along with “Wings and Wires, 8pm” from his “Memorial Day” EP (which really brings out the soundtrack feel).

Visit Ian McGlynn on his:  Website and MySpace

~Smansmith