Weightless

The second album by Irish singer/songwriter Myles O'Reilly under the project name Juno Falls, Weightless is as appealingly airy as its title implies. Although comparable on a superficial level to folky-poppy compatriots like Fionn Regan, KT Tunstall, and Laura Marling, Juno Falls also bears favorable comparison to older acts like Prefab Sprout and Crowded House and equally smart, canny contemporaries like Michael Penn and Ben Lee. The sophisticated arrangements by O'Reilly and keyboardist/producer Ken McHugh add some old-fashioned pop grace to knotty acoustic songs that might seem a bit more rough-edged without the subtly deployed gloss. O'Reilly is a gifted songwriter who kicks the album off with the winning "This Song Is Your Own," an extremely catchy tune with genuine pop hit potential. While little of the rest of the album is that immediately arresting, Weightless is a meaty, melodically substantial, and lyrically acute record that belies the winsome wispiness of O'Reilly's high, dreamy vocal style. Anyone who can write a heartbreaking acoustic ballad with a title like "The Boy Whose Skin Fell Off" without it turning into an exercise in emo self-abasement is clearly a talent to be watched. Unfortunately, just as Weightless was released in the U.K., Juno Falls' label, V2 Records, underwent a complete restructuring, meaning this fine, likable, and potentially commercially successful record largely disappeared upon its release.