Irish post-punk poet Sinead O’Brien has announced that she’ll be releasing her first proper EP called Drowning in Blessings on September 16. It collects together all of her recent singles, as well as today’s new missive from her articulate mind, which is called “Strangers in Danger”. Once again, it started from a simple moment, as she explains:
“I had a strange epiphany during a gig. “Plastic flowers in bloom and the sound of soccer”. I couldn’t make sense of it – I wrote it down and later began to take it apart. It’s about a kind of duality where something is divided by having two apparently conflicting meanings. A feeling is mirrored in an external scene and illustrated in another language. The image simplifies the problem because it just is. It exists. With all of its complexities and contradictions. I felt connected to various images and occurrences around me and began sound-tracking these mini scenarios.”
Once again, O’Brien proves herself to be not just a songwriter, storyteller or poet, but a philosopher as well. By following that initial image down into uncharted caverns of her mind she throws up many thought-provoking questions and images – “Back and forth between between loss and worth / what worth are we to one another talking? / what worth are we in words? / I am not worried or certain because this is not my life / this is just the dust before the fall and the rise.” The instrumental backing quietly gallops up behind her torrent of thoughts, but it never overwhelms, it simply carries them forward, imposing and fascinating. Even without a proper chorus, “Strangers in Danger” keeps you hooked in, considering every image and question that comes out, how reality is projected by us and imposes on us – and it is thrilling both philosophically and musically.
Here “Strangers in Danger” on streaming platforms or via the embed below.
Sinead O’Brien’s debut EP Drowning in Blessings is out September 16 via Chess Club. She’s also announced tour dates:
29 Nov | Stag and Dagger Festival, Glasgow
6 Feb | Wide Eyed Festival, Leicester
16 Mar| Heaven, London w/ Warmduscher
17 Mar | Rough Trade, Bristol
18 Mar | Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham
19 Mar | Shipping Forecast, Liverpool
20 Mar | Whelan’s (upstairs), Dublin
23 Mar | YES (Basement), Manchester
24 Mar | Brudenell (Community Room), Leeds
25 Mar | Chats Palace, London
3 Jul | VIDA Festival, Vilanova i la Geltrú, Barcelona
3-5 Sep | Moseley Folk Festival, Birmingham
Keep up with her on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
