Home › Music › David Long and Shane O’Neill – Far From Home / Dreams Come

David Long and Shane O’Neill – Far From Home / Dreams Come

By RingMaster Review on September 1, 2021 • ( 0 )

photo by Noel Farrell and Sabrina Colley

Having only just released their Far From Home EP this past July, Irish duo David Long and Shane O’Neill have now unveiled its successor Dreams Come. That first release drew swift acclaim with its trio of shadowed wrapped indie rock songs and we can only expect the same eager welcome for the pair’s new EP.

Dublin hailing, Long and O’Neill are no strangers to high praise and attention from fronting eighties bands Into Paradise and Blue In Heaven respectively. In fact the pair has known each other since children and previously played together in bands before their own separate projects and bands. As mentioned there have been barely a handful of weeks between the two EPs so it seemed right to present both to you.

Far From Home opens with its title track, a song calmly but with inherent power strolling through ears to soon weave a melodic web of temptation. There is a dark edge to the song and indeed band’s sound overall; the post punk/indie rock aspect of their previous bands an enduring edge in their own songwriting and imagination. Even so the track has a lively and warm character which manipulates the senses and sets the release of to a captivating start.

Shake Me, I’m Magic follows, its instant ear drawing thread and subsequent bassline enough to grip attention which thickens as vocals and melodic intimation dangle further temptation. The track is a slimly textured, thickly involving encounter with an essence of The Sound to its moving breath, a band and songwriter in Adrian Borland you easily suspect is an inspiration especially when the third track in the EP is a cover of that band’s Hand Of Love. Long and O’Neill infuse the song with their own individual spirit and energy to give the inherently shadowed and broody song a warmer romance for an individually compelling presence.

The Dreams Come EP similarly opens with its title track, a fertile slice of dark emotive pop that imparts intimation and sonic shuffle. As we found in the first EP, certain moments and jangles in its successor also remind of The Mighty Lemon Drops, this track certainly with its lively catchiness sparking before Meet Me On Another Day unites garage rock and sixties pop in earthbound dreaminess. It is a fusion of contrasts and fruitful enterprise which skilfully provoked keen intrigue and pleasure.

You Are Always On Your Own similarly captured attention and the imagination in its melancholic body of intimacy and though maybe not a song which had us as involved as others within the two releases we cannot say we were not enamoured and hooked on its classy charms and uncluttered indie bred disposition.

Both EPs also provide rich invitation and previews to the pair’s new album, Moll & Zeis, which will be released everywhere digitally on September 10^th. Right now though each keep keen ears rather richly satisfied.

Both the Far From Home and Dreams Come EPs are out now through Country Pylon Recordings; available @ https://davidlong4.bandcamp.com/