When it comes to songs of love, Simon Casey, has simply always possessed a voice perfect for sentimentality and romance, the Ballycumber native standing peerless amongst his contemporaries in this regard.
To be released this Friday, November 20, Casey’s new album, ‘This Kinda Love’, bears witness to such vocal majesty on songs such as the Extreme chart-topper More Than Words, where Simon is joined by his Take It To The Limit bandmate, Johnny Brady.
It’s a similar story on the Lady A crossover-classic, Need You Now, where a delicately stripped back version of the song sees Simon and Irish country star Cliona Hagan ramp things up to an emotional high that even the American super-group couldn’t match and to have your heart broken in just three and a half minutes, hit play on the Elliott Park and Walt Aldridge penned, I Loved Her First. Expect to cry and expect to hit repeat, too. Often.
The collection opens with a treat for fans, in the shape of a brand new song from the man himself, the album’s title-track, This Kinda Love. Coming in at just under two-minutes, the simplicity of the song is in itself a message for the times we’re in. Life is simple. Love is simple and sometimes, that’s all we need to remember.
‘This Kinda Love’ is an album to be enjoyed in a way that just lets your soul soak in it at the end of a long day, or a hard week and yes, at the end of a tough year, too. It’s one to reach for when your spirit needs to find the sort of calm and safe harbour that only music and love ever bring.
There’s a grace, a gentleness, and indeed, a simplicity too, underlying everything to do with this album and it reminds the listener of two indisputable certainties, love is everything and Simon Casey is the greatest singer of love songs that Ireland has seen and heard in decades.
‘This Kinda Love’ comes right on time, when it’s exactly the kind of album we need to hear.
