Eugene McGuinness - The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinness

Another British singer/songwriter? Isn’t the market already saturated with them? Maybe, but in a time when the likes of Blunt and Morrison are considered by some to be the height of musical talent, we should thank our lucky stars for artists like Eugene McGuinness.
The Liverpool-based 21-year-old’s debut is an intriguing, challenging combination of musical styles and instruments. His vocal is more Jamie T than James Blunt as he combines a jaunty bark with a wonderful, soaring falsetto yelp, and his brand of upbeat, sometimes psychedelic indie-folk-pop is played out to a cacophony of guitars, electronica, frenzied percussion, handclaps and piano.
Amid this giddying atmosphere, McGuinness tells worldly, poetic stories of modern-day life. He talks about insomnia-fuelled, late-night web surfing, about kids getting lost in supermarkets and about small-town, Burberry-clad yobs, yet manages to make it all sound strangely romantic, like the witty observations of Morrissey being delivered by The Pogues.
With so many albums nowadays sounding ultra-clean and radio-friendly to the point of being bereft of charm and character, this rough-and-ready record is a heartening listen. The Early Learnings… may not be perfect, nor is it instantly accessible, but it certainly bursts with honesty, invention and idiosyncrasies. Because its eight tracks are over in just 27 minutes, this is more of a mini-album than a full-blown long-player, but it certainly does enough to suggest that Eugene McGuinness has a very bright future ahead of him. Hopefully, his is a name you will be hearing plenty more of.