Fionán Martin Hanvey aka Gavin Friday is a singer and songwriter, composer, actor, and painter, best known as a founding member of the Virgin Prunes. His latest album `Ecce Homo` is released this month which began more than a decade ago with a surprise email from Dave Ball, the Soft Cell cofounder who produced Virgin Prunes 40 years ago and wrote the bulk of Ecce Homo’s music together.
The album gently breathes life through `LoveSubZero` which begins really quietly before an electronic beat leads us along a journey which does have its slight detours. I read that the number is an ode to the partner who has helped set Gavin free and find himself. An EBM pulsing beat runs through title track `Ecce Homo` which translates from Latin as `Behold the man` which were the words with which Pilate presented Christ, crowned with thorns, to his accusers. The song has a kind of defiance about it.
`The Church Of Love` is a kind of dreamy rebellion against organised religion, especially that of the Catholic church which held sway in Ireland for generations. There`s a kind of haunting slow burn texture to `Stations Of The Cross` which are a series of images depicting Christ’s last day on Earth as a man, a Catholic devotion with accompanying prayers.
`Lady Esquire` rolls along quite lethargically with a deep vocal that commemorates teenage indiscretion while `When the World Was Young` seems quite introspective but with one eye looking towards the future.
`The Best Boys in Dublin` is stripped back homage to the singer’s pups Ralfie and Stan the Man. A stripped back orchestrated heartfelt tribute. There`s a deeply emotive offering with `Lamento` which musically and lyrically echoes a lamination or a show of grief or regret. A song of letting go. We have an edited version of `When the World Was Young` with `When the World Was Young (Reprise)` whose edited form appears almost more powerful that the previous track shared.
`Cabarotica` is an upbeat synth-pop submission that seems to reflect on youthful sensual and sexual awakenings. A harder edged pulsing dance rhythm underpins `Amaranthus (Love Lies Bleeding)`. The title may refer to the cosmopolitan group of more than fifty species which make up the genus of annual or short-lived perennial plants which has love lies bleeding amongst them. Garvin`s mother`s voice is sampled towards the end of the number with a snippet of the music hall song `Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)`. The song could well be a metaphor to her passing.
`Daze` is a sensual almost enticing composition which races off in spurts as the number progresses as the final cut `Behold The Man` is brief and poetic.
The blurb for this release stated `There are love songs and fight songs, reflections on loss and reveries of nostalgia, anthems for solidarity and excoriations of the powerful` and if I’m honest that pretty well sums up this release.
Gavin Friday always produces albums that are not only musically interesting but also quite thought provoking and `Ecce Homo` retains the high standard he has set. It`s be a while since his last album so all we can say is welcome back.
Rating 8.5/10
