When You Motor Away...: The Muldoons

Saturday, July 4, 2020

The Muldoons - Made for Each Other

Yesterday's feature celebrated the latest release from good friends who have been together as The Ocean Party and, now, Pop Filter. Continuing with the friendship theme we now bring you Made For Each Other. It feels strange to refer to the album as a debut, because the gentlemen called The Muldoons began playing together in the '90s in Paisley Scotland, both as The Muldoons and as The Church Grims (we may later take a poll as to which name our listeners would have preferred surviving). After putting the project on the shelf to pursue jobs, families and other distractions, they re-combined in 2017 for an intended one-time show. Deciding the magic and motivation had not been exhausted, the band began writing and performing, with the end result now available for our ears.

So, what do we have? Classic Scottish guitar pop melodies with jangling guitars, sturdy rhythms and excellent vocals, all of which is stuff that we love. And in this case, it is done particularly well and the stories are sharply written and delivered with warmth, compassion and humor. But as good as that all is, The Muldoons also possess a secret weapon. Yes, this band adorns their songs with a trumpet. We understand that this sounds like a simple one-instrument addition, but we assure you that it is not. This trumpet acts as an aural punctuation mark for the verses, a booster rocket for the choruses, and just makes everything - which as we said was damn good already - grander.

We have been listening to this album for several weeks, and we can't take it out or rotation. It seems like and old friend and delights our hearts every time we play it. We have no choice -- we are moving it to the list of our favorite albums of the year so far, which means we have to keep playing it to evaluate it with its peers. We are quite happy with how this has turned out. Mark another winner for the Last Night From Glasgow label.

The Muldoons are Gerry Mullen (vocals/guitar), Bobby Corrigan (guitar), Andy McPake (drums), Greg Bolland (trumpet/melodica), and Davy Brook (bass). Made For Each Other is out now via Last Night From Glasgow's Hive subsidiary.

The Muldoons · In Love Again