Johnny Flynn – A Larum (2008)

Johnny Flynn is an actor and a singer-songwriter from Southern England. The first time I heard about him was when I attended Shakespeare's birthday party at the Globe Theatre a few years ago. He performed some of his songs there and I really liked his voice and his songs. I was living a musical phase where I was really into folk music and his acoustic folk songs really sunk into me. I only bought this CD much later, but after the gig I started listening to his music on Spotify. This debut album of Johnny Flynn's is his best one in my opinion. The sounds are quite authentic and he focuses on what matters in folk music. Storytelling, vocals and acoustic guitars. From his performance live, it was quite apparent that he is an actor. Some might find this a bit annoying in a musical artist, but I actually liked it, because he was also a good performer.

More recently I was watching a tv show called Lovesick on Netflix and for a while I just thought that that actor really looks familiar but I couldn't put my finger on who it is. Then I realised that it's Johnny Flynn. I really liked the series, which strengthened my liking of him.

The album cover is really nice. There's some snow on the ground and a broken down train carriage that's full of graffiti. I don't know where the photo has been taken, but it kind of looks like Eastern Europe. At first I thought the train looked like the one in Deptford here in London, but the background doesn't fit that assumption.

There are various catchy songs on this album, but I think Tickle Me Pink is the catchiest of them all. specially the chorus will stay in your head for a while after listening. I even remembered this song quite a while after seeing him live. The Wrote & The Writ is also a great song.

One thing that steps out from Flynn's music is his violin playing. I remember him playing the violin on stage as well now that I think about it and listen to this album, but for some reason I had forgotten about it. It gives his music nice authenticity. You can see him perform in his music videos. Here's the video to Tickle Me Pink.

I was kind of excited about Johnny Flynn after seeing him live, but unfortunately it seems like he fell into the same trap as many other folk artists these days. He failed to keep his music intimation the same way. His music on the later albums got a bit boring. There are still some good songs in there and he's got to perform with interesting other musicians such as Laura Marling, but there's something missing from his original sound. There is some hope though, because his latest album actually sounds quite good. I am also looking forward to his upcoming acting projects.

Listen to the album on Spotify.