After Everything Fall, the Dublin band’s debut album, Come On Live Long released ‘Trough’, an ambient-birthed four minute track that suggested further ambitions.
‘Speak Up’ is similar in that, at seven minutes, it’s a brave length to tackle. Closer in tone to the band’s established sweeping indie dual vocal sound, ‘Speak Up’, produced by the band’s Ken McCabe pushes the band’s directness into a larger sonic space through instrumentation which includes synths, upright pianos, strings, bells and electronic patterns.
All the while the band’s core appeal of Robert Ardiff and Louise Gaffney trading vocal lines brings it all together to the point where you may not even notice seven minutes has elapsed.
The song was made remotely as members were residing in Roscommon, Paris, Malta, and London. Guest musicians from Meltybrains? include Micheál Quinn on drums (filling in for Steven Battle) and Tadhg Byrne on violin and viola.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
