Michael J Sheehy has been making records for nearly thirty years, first as frontman of nineties cult band Dream City Film Club, then more recently as a solo artist and founder of atmospheric Miraculous Mule. `Don`t We Deserve Some Kind of Love` is Sheehy’s first solo album in six years and was recorded at home.
The songs and performances were slowly crafted over five years with writing informed by fatherhood and fourteen years of sobriety while Sheehy was a stay at home dad and worked evenings in a Camden bar and venue.
The opening track `Like Blood On Snow` has a shimmer about it as it begins and with Michael`s deeply resonating voice that sounded as if it would become a kind of Irish tinged ballad but no it`s inspired from mishaps he had during his addictive period and has a real dreamy surreal beauty about it. Michael has shared that “I suppose this song is about the sublimation of pain and suffering (even if self-inflicted) into something beautiful.” There`s more of a country vibe to `Full Moon, Empty Belly`. A song that seems to reflect more kindly on a misspent youth. Sandy Mill`s backing vocals really compliments Michaels and having read about his love of Roy Orbison, there a slight tremor of the Big O in the vocal delivery. Wonderful stuff.
`Don’t Put Yourself Beyond The Reach Of Love` was inspired by what happened to a friend Joe whom Michael had lost touch with and was written after his funeral. It`s piano led with a deep bass that joins on route. A song that will resonate with most of us who have lost somebody close and felt helpless to understand why and whether we could have changed the outcome. The singer tried to present a small part of his interior world into `You Better Take Everything`. It acknowledges his imperfections and reflects on how we present ourselves to the world and everything we try to keep hidden. A fairly expansive offering with violin hues from Fiona Brice that add a further poignancy to the number.
Michael reflects that `Pure Deep Water`, is a gospel song. It’s about refuge, how small kindnesses can have a huge impact. It’s also an ode to my inner world and the imagination. In an increasingly cruel and artificial world, the imagination seems as real to me as anything else. I`m sure if Elvis had still been around this is the kind of spiritual song that he would love to have recorded. The country tinged `Only Drinking In My Dreams` brought to mind Elvis`s `In The Ghetto` for some reason. The gentle resonating guitar riff in the background was genius and Sandy Mill`s backing vocals at the chorus added to the overall beauty of this composition.
`If I Had Known It Was The Last Time` is delightfully touching and more so when you read the backstory which involves a near death experience, an ultimatum to amend your lifestyle by your wife-to-be and friends Daz, Sandy and Ray who have passed away too early. It runs at only one hundred and forty nine seconds but shares and says more in that short space than others relate in a lifetime. The title of `The Left Hand Doesn’t Need To Know` is a slant on a phrase which comes from the Bible and is a poetic way to encourage acts of generosity that should be done purely and discreetly, without seeking self-appraise, validation, or public recognition. There`s an aching quality to the vocal delivery and it’s a number with haunting violin tones that add a further tender layer to the reflective axiom.
The title track `Don`t We Deserve Some Kind of Love` is a rhetorical question and i`m sure we all feel that we do if we`re honest. The song itself is stripped back with piano and Michael’s questioning vocal, backing vocals at the chorus, strings and a shook tambourine towards the end that give it a deeper expressiveness and tenderness. Michael had admitted that the number is a roll-call of the lost, with secular prayer and blessing offered, and a wish that all be drawn in. The final cut `Tiny Blessings` has an endearingly tinny sound which seems as if it emits out of an antique or vintage radio and is another kind of gospel depiction that brought Elvis to mind.
`Don`t We Deserve Some Kind of Love` is at times wonderfully overwhelming and overpowering both musically and lyrically and these songs feel as though they come from a lifetime of lived experience both good and not so great. At times there`s a real stark quality to the lyrics, a brutal honesty but with a overcoming sense of from out of the darkness comes light.
The Hired Mourners features the guitar of Pat McCarthy, drums of Ian Burns, the voice of Sandy Mill, together with violinist Fiona Brice who add their talents to really bring these songs to light.
`Don`t We Deserve Some Kind of Love` is not an easy listen but if you allow it time, it will seep into your soul and almost take over your life. It`s the kind of album that stays with you long after you`ve turned the stereo off. An unpolished gem that needs to be heard.
Rating 9/10
