December 5, 2007

After a draining touring schedule and what seemed like a non-stop work ethic for his debut album, Simple Kida aka Ciaran McFeely decided he wanted to get back to living his life rather than working as his alter ego all the time. So he stopped doing music went back to London started working a regular job and assumed a normal life. That is until, Simple Kid started to work itself back into his brain.

Realizing he missed music, Ciaran started to fiddle once again. The results of his fiddling eventually wound up being his second album; the aptly titled Simple Kid 2. Far more traditional than his debut album, Simple Kid 2 sounds as though it's been transported from the American Midwest to the busy city streets of London. It's dusty and dear and tugs at the heartstrings while banjos and guitars lilt and wander.

Simple Kid 2 is not nearly as cut and paste as his debut. The songs here haven't been altered digitally and sounds as they’re were when Ciaran recorded them. The end result of this is something that sounds like a long lost Beck record before he got huge. For someone rather young the guy has a knack for creating sweeping songs. The Simp's songs are intimate, warm and folky with just enough quirkiness in them to make them ludicrously addictive. "Lil King Kong," "The Twenty Something," and "Mommy and Daddy," are countrified folky beatific gems that would make most singer songwriters give up.

This is a really good record that revels in its simplicity, rusticness, and honesty. It proves that a record can be made for next to nothing and be just as good as something that costs over a million dollars. The Simple Kid has outdone himself on Simple Kid 2 and it will be interesting to see where he goes from here.

Paul Zimmerman, First Coast News