Fionn Regan

Fionn Regan's debut album The End of History is an amiable yet nondescript set of folk-pop tunes, and though it was released to great acclaim in the United Kingdom, it's difficult to muster much enthusiasm for the record in an American marketplace overflowing with earnest young troubadours. Regan's material often approaches the fragile, hushed sound of indie folk stars such as Iron & Wine and Bright Eyes, but the production values and vocal performances are far more polished, resulting in music that comes closer to the commercial gloss of James Blunt or Coldplay's quieter moments.

The crisp, professional aesthetic isn't entirely unattractive, but the slickness lends his songs a syrupy, sentimental quality well-suited to Hollywood soundtracks, though not necessarily to earthy, intimate tracks such as "Put a Penny in the Slot" and "The Underwood Typewriter." Aside from its mainstream sheen, too many of the album's cuts lack strong hooks, and settle into a pretty but forgettable mid-tempo haze that is all but indistinguishable from dozens of other songs on records aimed at the coffeehouse market.

—Matthew Perpetua
07.31.07

The debut album by Irish-born, British-based singer/songwriter Fionn Regan was first released in the U.K. by ex-Cocteau Twins bassist Simon Raymonde's dream pop imprint Bella Union, before being picked up for U.S. distribution by the rootsy alt-country label Lost Highway. Impressively, it's a good fit for both labels. Regan keeps one foot in the singer/songwriter tradition -- comparisons to Damien Rice and Nick Drake are ubiquitous in his reviews, and for good reason -- but Regan's interest in specific soundscapes for their emotional resonances is a subtle but important philosophical link to the Cocteau Twins' sound for sounds' sake aesthetic. Regan recorded the majority of The End of History in a disused stone barn, live to a portable recorder. The natural reverb adds warmth to these often skeletal songs, most with little more accompaniment than Regan's acoustic guitar and practically whispered vocals. The sense of intimacy thus engendered adds weight to songs that might have otherwise seemed ethereally light, but at his best, Regan proves himself an immensely skilled songwriter. "I have become an aerial view of a coastal town that you once knew" is a startlingly apt image in the lovely lost-love lament "Be Good or Be Gone," and Regan's debut single "Put a Penny in the Slot" is an instant classic ranking with such wry slices of U.K. folk-rock as Lloyd Cole and the Commotions' "Perfect Skin" (right down to Regan's echoing of Cole's trademark habit of dropping authors' names in his lyrics, Paul Auster and Saul Bellow in this case) and any number of Richard Thompson's romantic character studies. The End of History suggests that a major talent may be brewing here. ~ Stewart Mason, All Music Guide