Send "Marc Carroll " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Popmatters |
 He’s got Bob Dylan spewing accolades his way, and yet no one really knows about Marc Carroll. He just got signed to UK indie label One Little Indian. He’s already set to rerelease his decade-long catalog (newly remastered and re-packaged) over the next couple of months. He’s also toured all over the world…numerous times. And on top of that, he’s written these 12 songs to add to the collection. Yet it almost seems with all those accomplishments that Bob Dylan is the only person who knows about Marc Carroll. Here’s the thing about this guy: For fans of Irish folklore, he’ll feed your fetish for storytelling and musical poetics, but for everyone else outside that group of eight people, Carroll will bore you really friggin’ fast. Whereas the music on his earlier work always masked the forlorn and subdued nature of his lyrics, this album’s instrumentation is just as melancholy as the subject matter, and though that’s usually the sign of a good artist, he loses a very key element to creating an interesting album: consistency. In Silence begins with a new direction for the Dublin native, bristling with the hint of artistry a singer-songwriter of his tenure would hopefully peak at eventually. At the top, he takes us on an instrumental ride with “The Boy Who Dreamed”, setting up a dreamy haze with acoustic vibrato that chimes like the opening of a medieval drama, and the trance drifts into the powerful “Love Over Gold” that blisters with similar slide vibrato, feeling a bit like the soundtrack to a teenage fantasy series. Though Carroll probably won’t be making it onto any soundtracks with these two, his artistry is at a maximum for an album opener, transporting you to the mystical land he intended. And that’s when pop comes into play with “What’s Left of My Heart?”, and the record quickly loses its luster. The dragons and fairies escape your mind, and you’re left with the image of a guitarist bearing his soul at a small coffeehouse; after such a strong beginning, it’s a shoulder-lowering letdown to what occurred just a minute prior. Even the following track, “No Time At All,” is by far the singularly most amazing track on the album, but as a mark within the record itself, it doesn’t do justice, playing up the singer-songwriter croons as more of a commercial tactic than something in which he really believes. And just when Carroll returns to folkloric measures on the fifth and sixth tracks, “Against My Will” and “Matty Groves”, the steel guitar storytelling comes to an abrupt halt as halfway through the album, we’re left with piano ballad sob fests akin to Michael Bolton. It leaves you wondering why the hell In Silence wasn’t released as two separate EPs....full text |
| Trisickle |
| Despite receiving plaudits from the likes of Brian Wilson and Bob Dylan, Marc Carroll has never really been in any danger of finding his way into the hearts, minds and ears of the normal every day punter. Still, it’s to his credit that even during the harder times he continued to put music out on his own label and keep ticking over. This compilation serves as a primer for Carroll’s new material, which is apparently on the way soon and a quick snapshot of his work over the last 10 years – which is also getting the re-release treatment. Quite whether this compilation will awake interest in anyone who’s missed his work over the last 10 years is debatable. A name check from Dylan is usually enough to get his evangelical fans running to the shops and Carroll quite often slips into a Dylanesque drawl throughout a number of these songs. It is undeniable that Carroll has quite a bit of talent, as evidenced on opener The Who Dreamed – a quite beautiful finger-picked instrumental piece that has threads of glittering hope woven into a overriding melancholic tone. Similarly the piano balladry of In Agreement With Reality tugs at the heartstrings in a sincere but not overplayed way. Love Over Gold is a Byrdsian swamp stomp – part folk and part Bayou acid trip. If only the title didn’t evoke the terror of Dire Straits and fulfilled the initial brooding menace established in the first 20 seconds. However, much of the problem with In Silence is that many of these songs are rather uninventive and do little to suggest that Carroll could stand out as a singular original talent. His take on the standard Matty Groves for example is precisely that, standard. There’s little in the way of inventive thought, or a stamp of authority from Carroll on the song which is a shame. If anything it sounds like a Levellers B-side, which is never a good thing (it really isn’t). In most cases it’s the string arrangements that save many of these songs from being instantly dismissed as bland. On the fairly standard folk fare of Against My Will for example they elevate an ordinary song into something approaching spine tingling. Always also benefits from some quite startling orchestration – it’s not quite on the level of polishing a turd, more like buffing a grubby coin that’s no longer legal tender....full text |
| Heinekenmusic |
| For some unfathomable reason, Marc Carroll means very little to very few. Carroll used to be in one of Dublin’s most praised back-in-the-day bands (Puppy Love Bomb); then he was in a praised London-based band called The Hormones; and then about ten years he went solo, and released three albums that were, yes, praised. He is, then, something of a critic’s favourite, which is all well and good, but it sure doesn’t pay the bills. Now signed to One Little Indian, In Silence isn’t a studio record proper, but rather a selection of tracks culled from his previous two albums (World On A Wire and Dust Of Rumour) as a means to introduce Carroll to those unfamiliar with his work. As introductions go, it is just superb; over the years, Carroll has fashioned for himself an output that mixes ringing/zinging guitars, Beach Boy melodies, acoustic folk with Dylanesque hints, and a lyrical stance that delves honestly and directly into all manner of emotional states. In Silence, then, is a taster for a slew of solo album re-issues later in the year, and an album of new material in early 2012. Maybe then, with the wider distribution a label such One Little Indian can provide, his work will be more appreciated. In the meantime, cop a listen to the songs collected here, and wonder why in the name of the good Lord above Carroll is little more than, at best, a cult figure, at worst, a forgotten name of Irish rock, and – no word of a lie – one of the most underrated songwriters currently putting pen to paper....full text |
Marc Carroll lyrics
|
| |||||||
