One might assume that unfathomably young
wunderkind Declan McKenna would be
some sort of millennial Hanson-alike,
mmm-bopping along in between telling grown-ups that Pokémon Go was so 2016 and flicking his spinner. All that hype for someone who – while now 18 –
was only 15 (or less) when many of the songs on What Do You Think About The Car? were written, and 16 when handed a
record deal, must surely have been a pure marketing exercise, right? The folly
of such ageism was made clear to me, at least, after watching McKenna perform a couple of tracks on
Jools Holland last year, where he shone out over a number of big names and
confirmed that he’s a proper talent. I’d
therefore been waiting for this record by the time that it came out. While it’s definitely a patchy affair, it’s
still a superb debut. Socially conscious lyrically and thoughtfully aware of
some of the apathy and entitlement of his generation (‘Listen To Your Friends’,
for example, is both call to arms and admonition – a plea for free thinking),
the quality here goes deeper than merely the presence of some catchy pop songs.
Not to say that there aren’t some fantastic
catchy pop songs on this record. ‘Isombard’ starts with 16-bit samurai-string and then bursts into a hook-tastic
chorus, ‘Brazil’ has a swagger and a great choppy guitar line, and the
child-choir backed ‘The Kids Don’t Wanna Come Home’ is fun in a bucket. Elsewhere there’s some drift/filler, but no
bad tracks (take note, Foo Fighters). McKenna
is highly likable (he has publicly
spoken out against sexism, racism and Piers Morgan over the last year); he clearly
cares about the world. He also cares
about his art, having cited the likes of
Sufjan Stevens, St. Vincent and David Bowie as influences. Some way to go yet to reach those kinds of heights,
perhaps, but the ambition is there and, on certain tracks at least, he fits into
the same ‘serious pop artist’ mould. Pretty amazing stuff. Especially
for a tiny child.
sample track: Isombard