Reviews

Hotpress Album Review

“The Ross Rooney – produced sophomore album from Kildare native Eoghan Burke – trading as Fia Rua – is a mightily impressive affair. Blessed with a poetic pen and distinctively quavering vocal style, and peddling a rare mix of alt folk and indie rock, Burke manages to simultaneously sound both contemparary and timeless. The thumping title track, and a few others besides, wouldn’t sound out of place on one of Rogues Gallery albums. He does dark and melancoly too, as evidenced on the brilliant Winter Sun. Elsewhere the likes of Jinx Lennon and Welsh songstress Nicola Williams add to an already heady mix of accents and styles. Fia Rua won’t be to everyone’s taste but, even if you don’t like this genre, this is a folking brilliant piece of work”

4/5****

2uibestow Music Blog (Ireland) Album Review

‘Falling Time’ is a great album. I often have ‘Dancing About Architecture’ moments when I write reviews where I find it difficult to explain my fondness for an album but I’ll do my best here to explain why ‘Falling Time’ is a great album.

Fia Rua is Eoghan Burke from Galway and has just released a wonderful collection of songs called ‘Falling Time’. It comes out at a time where there’s no real appetite for singer-songwriters in Ireland which is a massive shame as I fear Fia Rua’s excellent album will go unnoticed by the mainstream media. It’s an album of delicate tunes and songs sung with conviction on the themes we are now in the midst of in Ireland.In many ways ‘Falling Time’ could well be the first recession album I’ve really enjoyed. Songs like the title track, ‘Leave Me on the Floor’ and the Jinx Lennon assisted ‘Shakier’ deal with despair, reality and loss. In between these themes we have some beautiful love songs like ‘Into My Soul’ where he sings ‘I need your spirit inside me, Into My Soul’.There are two real quality attributes within ‘Falling Time’. The first of these is that Eoghan sings with such great conviction. When he encourages us to ‘Walk Away’ in the song of the same name I’m there with him. When he sings ‘I crave more magic in my life’ it brings to mind The Frames ‘Pavement Tune’ when Glen belts out ‘I want my life to make more sense’.The other attribute which shines is the accompanying fiddle and piano performed by Christophe Capewell. The fiddle in particular adds great depth to all the tracks and in particular to ‘Hop on the Road’ as well as adding the atmospheric sounds of ‘Winter Sun’.I highly recommend ‘Falling Time’. At present this album means a massive amount to me. It suits my delicate mood yet has many positive messages for me which have the power to inspire. ‘Falling Time’ will be in my top 10 albums of the year for sure.[11 out of 12]

Nessymon.com Blog (Ireland) – Album Review

This is one of those albums that has been knocking around my desk for a while. ‘Falling Time’ is the current album from Galway based experiemental folk artist Eoghan Burke, better known as Fia Rua.

Opening with the title track ‘Falling Time’, an uptempo track with fiddles, guitars, everything you’d expect to hear on a folk album Fia Rua though is a little different as contemporary production creeps in, with little noises and hooks. You’ll be singing this all day.

There are a few guests on the album including Jinx Lennon, who on Shakier, spits out lines like ‘you got to keep it raw, awkward and real if you want to survive the next twenty four years’.

I’m going to to be totally honest here, sometimes I find Irish folk music very confining, I can listen and appreciate it but it would never be the first CD I look for (I blame my Granny). It reminds me of being somewhere where there isn’t a good bus service and I can’t get out.

I can though, recognise good production and good songwriting and Eoghan Burke delivers on both fronts, bringing his brand of folk out of his past and into the current music scene. On this album we see the variation of Burke’s talent with the tender ‘Last Wave’ to the uptempo ‘Walk Away’ with modern production and sometimes full on rock vocals.

If you’re into your folk music, you’d better do yourself a favour and get this album. Fia Rua is probably the most relevant folk artist on the Irish scene right now.

The Motion Magazine (UK)

Singer-songwriter Eoghan Burke released his first album in 2003 called ‘Feeding The Hunger’. Now going under the name Fia Rua, Eoghan is currently touring Europe promoting his current album ‘Falling Time’ which was released in January 2011. Refreshing yet endearingly familiar, Falling Time consists of songs which tell tales of the emotional pursuit of freedom.

The album mesmerizes right through ‘til the end, featuring traditional folk sounds elevated by a modern and impetuous flare. Lyrically captivating, tracks possess that quintessential Irish charm along with a reoccurring sense of realism. Hauntingly beautiful, final track Ghost provides a powerful spell-bounding climax to a fantastic album.