James & Eleanor-Snowflakes Fall
During the winter months, reviewers such as myself land up under a landslide of seasonal releases, where every artists seems to lose all sense of credibility, throw caution to the wind and make a bid for the single charts, despite the fact that nobody has really cared for such things since Top Of Pops left our screens and those good old festive jesters Rage Against The Machine thankfully killed Mr Cowell's dream. Now you might have read that introduction and thought Bah..humbug or some other nonsense but let's take Snowflakes Fall by James Cramer and Eleanor McEvoy as an unwitting example of what I mean. James is the frontman of acclaimed Irish alt-folk band Tupelo, who have released a couple of pretty decent albums as well as treading the boards at a number of high profile festivals, he's also released a mini concept album inspired by a pre-war Irish Poet, so fairly heavy duty stuff. Whilst Eleanor is one of Ireland's most accomplished and engaging singer-songwriters of all time, releasing one of the best selling Irish albums of all time, A Woman's Heart, whilst consistently selling out tours both home and abroad. So you would like to think with that pedigree the duo would know better than to release a seasonal duet, or perhaps they could be the pair to buck the tread and perhaps capture the essence of crisp winters, expectant children and harassed parents, or perhaps hardship and discontent, but alas I'm afraid even this pair of renowned writers fall into the same festive trap of those that came before them. Snowflakes Fall is a somewhat bland duet, that I'm afraid to say leaves me a little cold (sorry for the pun). Sure the vocal trades and the tinkering of ivory is all very nice and pleasant, but like most material of this ilk, lacks substance and anything to really make it stand out among a deluge of festive....ahem... treats.
