It may be a long way from that sort of thing that they were raised, but it hasn't stopped Mike Cleare and his My Brother Woody comrades from replicating a Californian-style soundscape on their debut album. The Offaly native's penchant for warm, breezy harmonies and multiple layers of sound is obvious even before clapping eyes on his list of influences, which includes The Beach Boys, Ben Folds and Rufus Wainwright. While it's clear, however, that Cleare is aspiring to the 'modern classic' songwriting status of the latter two, the fact that he doesn't quite reach the dizzying heights of their calibre is incidental, for the most part. It's A Long Way.. is certainly no classic, but as debut albums go, it's undoubtedly likeable. A deceptively slow false start eventually paves way to a bevy of tracks that gently thump, fizzle and burble while simultaneously emitting occasional glints of glorious sunshine. Hanging Around pays tribute to the sort of uptempo pop-rock that Springsteen and Petty are famed for; Your New Found Taste and When Summer Comes wistfully dander along a charminglyl-paced path, while almost every track is infused with swoonsome, harmony-laden backing vocals. With song titles, too, like I Only Like Songs With Bops, Oohs and Aahs and Getting Old Goes With Getting Fat (on which Cleare laments his defective metabolism while sounding like a brittle-voiced version of Elvis Costello), it's difficult to resist a record that's imperfect, but undeniably sweet without being overly saccharine.
