Album Review: Ian Felice - In The Kingdom Of Dreams

For whatever reason, their Americana folk rock hasn't quite hit the heights here of their commercially successful Yonder Is The Clock in 2009 and Celebration, Florida two years later in the Billboard charts.

But their lead singer and songwriter Ian Felice has branched out on his own and maybe this dark and mysterious solo record will increase their British popularity.

Firstly, In The Kingdom Of Dreams has a fantastic cover, a bleak and lonesome ghostly rider striding across the landscape with scythe in hand.

The dark aura offsets the record nicely, especially the title track with its almost apologetic guitars rising and falling hauntingly behind Ian's voice. It is a beautiful track, the kind of indie hit you might find in low budget cult movies like Michael Shannon's Shotgun Stories or What's Eating Gilbert Grape.

Ian's voice is melancholic in nature, like a lighter Dylan without a lot of the nasal impact. We don't expect Ian to ever reach those levels of popularity, but his ability to grip you to his stories in the likes of Will I Ever Reach Laredo is unnerving.

Think Nick Cave, but without some of the grit. Signs Of Spring with the heartbroken piano. It could easily be the Aussie crooner over the top rather than this New York beanpole with a slight stature but huge potential.

There is airier material too, it's not all seriousness. There is a lovely hopefulness to the strumming in acoustic Water Street. Something in Ian's voice here gives more of an optimistic outlook on what is to come in life.

It is a very intimate record, like we are being welcomed inside Ian's soul with just a candle to guide us. Rather than glum, it is a more brutally honest setting - like somebody looking back on a path well-trodden.

The original Felice Brothers line-up appear with backing accompaniments, while brother Simone helped him produce. The personal nature is compounded by this, the most intimate of records with the softest of sounds.

Rating: 7/10

Ian Felice brings his solo material to Birmingham's Hare & Hounds in King's Heath on November 29.