Ian Daniel Kehoe
Secret Republic
You’ve Changed Records
youvechangedrecords.com
This record is not unlike watching John O’Regan step out from the D’Urbervilles to record as Diamond Rings, though Ian Kehoe has already been working solo for four albums (as Marine Dreams, after a number of years with Attack In Black). Like O’Regan’s own change of pace, the new Kehoe is decidedly glamorous. Guitars are out, and synthesizers are in — as is a newfound knack for channeling 1980s soft rock (with a dash of Prince). Secret Republic is intimate, confessional, and lyrically dense. If there’s a particular tone way or to best capture melancholy, Kehoe has found it.
