Album review: Kings of Sweet Feck All – Sir Reg
Irish/Swedish folk-rockers Sir Reg are back with a new release, their sixth full-length album. Released on the 1st of April on Despotz Records, titled Kings of Sweet Feck All.
This is a band that in my opinion has one of the best voices in the genre in singer and frontman Brendan Sheehy. Being from Ireland he lends an authenticity to the songs that are hard to beat. On this record, he and the band has also kicked up their song-writing to a new level.
It kicks of with the title song, and it’s straight away some classic Irish melodies that starts the song, going into a little slower verse before kicking of again. This band has always known their genre and I get a good feeling right from the start. This continues through the second song Goodbye to all Your Freedom, which is a nicely written song both lyrically and musically, and the pandemic-song Open the Pubs, about the problems of not being able to get a beer at the pub.
The in my opinion weakest song of the album comes next in Tosspot City. It’s not particularly bad, but compared to the others it’s a bit bland. So far it’s been all uptempo songs and therefore it’s nice to hear that the album takes a bit of a break with the slower Thank You For Your Lies, another well-written song that goes more acoustic and with lyrics that’s on the “angrier” side. It’s a nice break before the band kicks into to a more straight on rock-song, where the Irish influences are almost completely gone (The Coming Regime). It’s not at all a bad thing though, it’s a really strong song that shows the bands musical width when they put that side to it.
The following four songs are more back to the roots with quick folk-melodies. Some tropes of the genre in the songs about drinking in Sober up to Drink and The Stinking Mattress, here composed and performed really well. Give up the Drugs is exactly what it sounds like, a song about giving up drugs and daring to take help from the people close to you. Kick out the Scum is a nice song bashing politicians, a subject that the band often returns to, which is nice to hear.
The album closes on the slow side with slower song telling the story of growing up in Dublin during the 80s in the song The Story’s Been Told. Really nice to hear this side of the band as well and I like to hear that they dare to take down the tempo on a couple songs, this is often needed in this genre to not become repetitive over a full album.
The one and only negative I have to say is connected to the vinyl-release. The vinyl itself is beautiful, but the problem comes with the gate-fold sleeve. The more rough paper structure paired with the colour chosen for the printed text makes it completely impossible to read the print on the inside. I’d like to think that my eyesight ain’t that bad, but I cannot for my life make out the printed lyrics. All in all though, this is the best album I’ve heard from Sir Reg to date. Diverse, well-written and well played almost all the way throughout. They show a diversity in the song writing that is awesome and there are barely any fillers on the album which is consistently good through all the songs. This is a must hear for fans of the genre in my humble opinion.