The cover sleeve of Headgear's second album depicts a gentleman tightrope-walker balancing precariously on a length of rope strung between Dublin's Spire Monument, and the structure it replaced, Nelson's Pillar. It's a befitting image for the man behind the Headgear name, Daragh Dukes; Flight Cases is an album that teeters unsteadily between lo-fi electronica and studio-constructed rock, and Dukes is the player treading the twine betwixt. Headgear's eponymous debut was released in 2004 to critical acclaim, but this follow-up is thematically, if not stylistically different to its fragile, electronica-doused predecessor. Apparently partly provoked by Limerick native Dukes's apprehension with aviation following a few 'dodgy flights', Flight Cases also ropes in a few larger-than-life characters to base its stories upon. Opener Harry Truman is inspired by an 84-year old lodge owner on Mount St. Helen's, who refused to evacuate his home and sixteen cats in the face of imminent death, its glistening piano coda and hushed violins atypical of the album's entirety; while Mister Petit is a gorgeous harmonic tale of Frenchman Phillipe Petit, who picked his way between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers on a tightrope in 1974. Icarus Girl uses comedian Pat Shortt's talent on saxophone to create a warm, sweet, swirling whirpool of lo-fi goodness, while a change in tack is brought about by flagrant country ditty The Emergency Position, a gently-plucked acoustic ditty that bristles with harmonica and a church choir background. Proceedings are brought to a head with epic closer and album standout A Singsong in the Sky, a song infused with melancholic electronica, yet an almost childlike wonderment. Parallels with both David Kitt and Snow Patrol are easily drawn here; but Dukes's cracked, often frail voice is streets away from Kitt's mumble, and while some tracks share the similar accessible tones of Lightbody and co., they're nowhere near as tacky or anthemesque. As long as Dukes' feet stay firmly on the ground, his career should soar in years to come.

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