Jinx Lennon: Liferafts for Latchicos – A welcome change of pace

“You must be your own life raft sometimes,” sings Dundalk’s Jinx Lennon. We are well used to Lennon hitching up his trouser legs, placing a knotted handkerchief on his head, looking up at the skies and shaking his fist at whatever annoyed him, but on Liferafts for Latchicos he displays his concerns with a milder and more introspective approach.

It isn’t that smoothing the abrasiveness of previous albums is a clever or strategic stylistic move but rather a sensible one; more importantly, the shift into what might be inaccurately described as “acoustic singer-songwriter” isn’t at all forced.

In several ways, nostalgia raises its head, from the cover of Lennon and his mother at Mosney holiday camp, Co Meath, in 1969, to songs referencing the cover image (The Rough Kids), work experience (Ah Sure Look), former friends (The Quiet Man of Discotheques), Border county living (Border Lad) and attempts at losing virginity status (Briege Is in the Shed).

Parent-related matters make their presence strongly felt as well – notably, teenage murder tragedies (My Friend Says) and the future of Lennon’s own offspring (Pilates). The songs, delivered with the songwriter’s reliable acidity, are fashioned out of 1960s psych-folk influences and exposure to the likes of cult UK performers Kevin Coyne and Michael Chapman.

To all intents and purposes, the result could be a turning point for an often overlooked songwriter.