Fear of Height

Impressions of John Robin Devany�s "Fear of Height" CD begin with the packaging itself. In a good improvement to the typical serving of mugshots, tracklists and floating abstract art, you are showered by colour photographs of stellar nebulae from cover to cover, underneath the lyrics of each song and plastered on the CD itself. I could easily have cut them out and hung them in my hallway. Fine print recognises the photographer as the Hubble Space Telescope, an orbital eyeglass that can penetrate to the edge of the observable Universe. Clearly, John Robin Devany wants to take us on a journey.

"Fear of Height" unquestionably rocks. Predominant in the mix is John�s Cuban Tres, a guitar with the popping attack of a banjo, the plucky harmonies of a harpsichord and the zinging resonance of a sitar. He plays it with heart and flair, while marvelous percussive sounds pop left and right from the loudspeakers, at times thumping like a drunkard's last fall and other times snapping like bones beyond their tensile strength. You have to hear it to appreciate its effect, so I�ll just say that through these staccato rhythms and three-chord turnarounds of his Tres, John Robin Devany has found a formula for pure fun.

I confess that I had heard a good number of the songs on "Fear of Height" before, for in the album's formative months, John had been blinking on and off the Internet radar to test his creations on his musical peers. Always his songs stood out, from the etheral, epic "One More River" to the laconic sunshine of "Guantanamo Bay". For this reason "Fear of Height" is to me not so much a hopeful, nervous debut album as a solid collection of already-greatest hits. The fact that the rest of the world is yet to enjoy them is, upon reflection, just a matter of time.

Self-described in part as modern folk, JRD offers this in the truest sense. And because the purpose of folk music is to celebrate and immortalise the hopes, fears, joys, tragedies and reflections of a culture, you get from JRD precisely what modern pop culture lacks. While the pop music of today can be characterised by a fixation on the trivial, Devany hits us with themes such as mortality, the courage to try and not just dream, the embracing of uncertainty and even the simple quiet tragedy of those who passively watch the world from the sidelines of life. "Our time on earth is not enough" challenges the second track, "So we sing."

Expanding on the theme set initially by the album�s visual statement, "One More River" draws a unique yet strangely potent analogy between the mystery presented by outer space and the crossing of rivers into new lands by the earliest human settlers. Then there is the haunting title track, "Fear of Height", which compares our reluctance to expand into space to a simple fear of height, arguing that it is a barrier more psychological in nature than physical. The strength of these songs cannot be overstated, for no other songwriter today can synthesise so emotively yet so accessibly these issues of ultimate human destiny. Like a musical Carl Sagan, John Robin Devany has the power to tare profound science from lifeless textbooks and make it mean something to ordinary lives. He leaves you entertained and simultaneously enlightened, to conclude in equal measure both "That was terrific" and "I never saw it that way before." Yet regardless of subject matter, JRD�s appeal is always a human one, and his search for drama remains eclectic. In a welcome diversion from the album�s high brow romanticism, a simple guitar ballad called "The Homecoming Song of the Prodigal Son" is a heartwarming tale of a lost soul redeemed, adapted and extrapolated straight from the New Testament.

It goes without saying that "Fear of Height" is not a haphazard collection of musings from a man seeking his identity. JRD knows who he is, he�s got his world view and is here to give it to us, confidently and unashamedly. Yet "Fear of Height" does not stumble over its own wisdom and serenity. Peppered amongst songs of galactic portent are a song about hangovers, a playfully suggestive love song and some topical political satire, while "I�m Getting Ready For World War 3" has shades of Dylan�s "With God On Our Side" in terms of structure and clever use of irony. "The Road to Everywhere", another sunny rhythm track, celebrates a state of mind that embraces the endless combinations and possibilities of life; its conclusion, "And when the lights go out / well maybe then I�ll know / Was this some other road where no-one else can go", puts one in mind of Robert Frost�s "Road Less Traveled", but the dusty verse of the old gives way to the new smile and the rainbow in Devany�s playing. If this album doesn�t quite make you cry it will certainly make you laugh, and whatever your world view, you�ll never think of Guantanamo Bay the same again. "Condoleezza Rice" � sings John � "She�s nice!"

John�s vocal has several personas. The album�s opener, "I Could Be You", a sly examination of alternate destinies, rolls along in a cheerful, Paul Simonesque narrative style. Continue to the next track and you�ll hear a vocal befitting a more traditional Scottish folk singing style: even-tempered, articulate and distinctly East Coast of Scotland; he could be a third voice in The Corries. "The Lurker" has a freer, almost rebellious vocal sentiment, half shouted, reminiscent of The Pogues, that Irish band of revelry and chaos. His falsetto in the chorus of the title track is slightly hesitant by comparison, but that does not detract from the album as a product of confidence and quality. There are far worse singers, some more famous, than John Robin Devany. And with JRD you get the passion of a songwriter who knows his own mind singing songs he loves.

"Fear of Height" is backed by true sentiment, but where possible, errs on the side of fun. It reveals an intellectualism that doesn�t forget its job is to entertain, and a good mix of tempos that make the adventure implied by its stellar artwork come to life. It was borne from the mind of a man who knows where he has been and most of the time where he is going, and is happy to enjoy your company along the way. To borrow from his orbital array of lyrics, we might be getting ready for world war three, but there is one more river to cross.