Drowning in the Shallow (CD)

2012 album from the London-based Irish singer/songwriter. Drowning in the Shallow is painful, beautiful and political all at the same time, raging against all the things that break a broken world. Produced by Grammy-award winning producer Alan Branch (Jeff Beck, Cat Stevens, Sinead O'Connor), Drowning in the Shallow features a feast of melody and musicality with warm strings from Abbey Road, virtuoso performances from Lucy Payne (cello), Matt Hay (oud, violin), Yves Fernandez, and Pete Lockett. The combination of Flannagan's rhythmic guitar style and the beautifully languid cello of Lucy Payne draws inevitable comparisons with Damien Rice. His edge certainly isn't in his image, but in his poetic yet disturbing lyrics, which unashamedly peel back layers to leave the listener's emotions very near the surface. He has been compared to Roddy Frame and Jackson Browne, and is less ginger than Ed Sheeran but certainly more Irish.