Printer Clips - Printer Clips Album Review

Printer Clips is the side project of Bell X1 frontman, Paul Noonan. The Dubliner had been working

on this album, which was originally slated for a 2012 release date, for a long time now. A new Bell

X1 album and touring commitments pushed the release date back to May 2014. The album is an

album of duets between Paul and a host of top female musicians. The guest musicians featured on

the album are Lisa Hannigan, Amy Millan, Gemma Hayes, Maria Doyle Kennedy, Martha

Wainwright, Cathy Davey, Danielle Harrison, Joan As Police Woman and Julia Stone. Each woman

brings a different style to their song all equally as beautiful as the track before it.

The album consists of tales of love, heartbreak, guns and a very tall Mongolian which are

accompanied by melancholy guitar chords, thought provoking lyrics and soothing vocals.

"If I Had Your Grace” captures exactly what Printer Clips is all about. The beautiful chemistry

between the voices of Paul and Amy Millan is clearly evident which makes this duet the finest of

the album.

"The Dolphins And The World’s Tallest Man" is a heart warming tale of a dolphin who got some

plastic stuck inside its stomach which led to lack of appetite and depression. The vets couldn’t

figure out how to help the dolphin until a really tall Mongolian man came and reached inside to

remove the plastic, leaving everybody happy, not least of all the poor dolphin.

"The Cartographer" has all the hallmarking of a classic folk song. This is probably the only song on

the whole album where the male vocals are the dominant force behind the song and outshine the

female vocal.

The album ends with a cover version of “Some Surprise”. A song that Paul Noonan recorded with

Lisa Hannigan for the brilliant charity album “The Cake Sale” This version unfortunately is not quite

as good as the duet with Lisa Hannigan but that can be forgiven as Lisa shines on every song she

lends her voice to, so it was a hard act to follow.

A duet album was a great concept from Paul Noonan for his first “solo” album

and worked brilliantly. Where will he go from here?

Standout Tracks: Apparatchik, If I Had Your Grace & The Dolphins And The Worlds Tallest Man.

By: Dave McMahon

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