On the record

Jim Carrollon music

The Thrills' third album feels the chill

The punters have spoken and they are blanking Teenager. First-week sales figures for The Thrills' new album were just as disappointing as the critical reaction. In Ireland, Teenager went into the charts at No 24 on the back of just over 600 sales. At the time of writing, the album has slipped to 29 on the midweek chart.

The Thrills first two albums performed well in the UK, but this wasn't so with Teenager. It limped into the Top 50 at No 48 in what was a quiet week for new releases and failed to out-sell year-old CDs from Oasis, James Morrison and Kasabian.

UK reviews of Teenager were largely negative, and few critics scored it higher than two or three out of five. The Guardian criticised the "cheesy lyrics" and "Conor Deasy's reedy voice", while the Independent found the band "labouring to sustain an increasingly threadbare formula, with an inevitable decline in songwriting standards".

As is often the case, Irish reviews were kinder to the south-Dublin band. The Ticket's Tony Clayton-Lea said Teenager "reaches the triumphant summery heights of their 2003 debut," and the RTÉ Guide's Alan Corr praised the album's "trebly guitar sound, plangent mandolin and searing conviction". However, the Sunday Tribune's Una Mullally complained that there's "little dexterity in the musicianship, and the whole thing feels stifled and forced".

But The Thrills and their label will be probably more concerned with the underwhelming retail response, especially in Ireland. It's a particularly bad performance, given the band's high profile.

In defence, you could question the decision to go for a summer release and the band's low-key touring schedule. But a late June release didn't hinder the success of their So Much for the City debut four years ago. Of course, sales may improve when the band tour later in the year. But such a low first week tally may discourage the label from putting more money and effort into the release. The Thrills could well be another Irish act facing a rocky future.

The jazzman cometh

Dublin will be getting its Lieb on at the end of the month with the visit of veteran jazzer David Liebman. In addition to working with Miles Davis and Elvin Jones, Liebman has also taken a keen interest in the Irish jazz scene in recent years and has toured Europe with his Dublin Project band.

Lieb: An Appreciation takes place in various city-centre venues from August 22nd to25th and will include concerts, collaborations and lectures.

The highlight will be a free Coltrane Remembered concert at Meeting House Square on August 23rd, featuring a Liebman-led band of emerging Dublin jazzers. Go to www. improvisedmusic.ie for more details.

Paddy Casey's next blockbuster

Paddy Casey releases his third album, Addicted to Company (Part One), on September 7th. It's the singer-songwriter's follow-up to his blockbuster Living, which has sold a colossal 175,000 copies in Ireland alone.

However, after two albums, Casey has yet to make any sizable commercial impact beyond his homeland.

The inability to replicate Irish success in other territories is something which has stymied many major label-signed local acts and had led to the termination of the relationship with their paymasters.

Earlier this year, for instance Bell X1 and Universal/Island went their separate ways, despite amassing a very healthy Irish sales tally for their last album Flock.

Casey will commence the Addicted to Company campaign here with a series of dates in the comng weeks. But it will be interesting to see how his game- plan unfolds in foreign parts.

Artful advice

Memo to RTÉ radio queenpin Ana Leddy: there is another way to cover arts on the radio. Axing the dull Eleventh Hour is a start, but Leddy should tune into Dublin's Phantom FM, which airs The Kiosk on Saturday mornings. Nadine O'Regan's bright and sassy show takes in music, movies, poetry, theatre, books and everything in between, using just a pinch of the resources that RTÉ Radio One can call upon. Now, that's what we call arty radio.