Waking Ned Devine - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

Arizona Daily Wildcat

"Waking Ned Devine" was a remarkable film, not only in its comic portrayal of a small Irish village, but in the fact that it was probably the only Irish film ever made that didn't feature Colm Meany.

Anyway, with the exception of a track by the Waterboys, the music on the CD is composed by Shaun Davey, an Irish-based composer who is fond of using traditional Irish instruments, like the uillean pipes, as well as Celtic vocalists. The result is a combination of swaggering drinking songs, evocatively alluring soundscapes and songs which sound traditional, despite their modernity.

Sure, a lot of this stuff would sound perfectly natural in The Nature Company or any other New Age haven, but there's something timelessly captivating about this music, about the sounds and voices which evoke an almost magical land far away in the sunshine, where things are simpler and the world is still young.

Of course, if the very mention of Riverdance makes you ill, you probably won't go for this, but it's worth giving it a chance, if only to broaden your horizons a bit. - doug levy