We here at the Send Me Your Ears studio have been taking a listen to FUH (I Can’t Stop Falling), the latest single from Ireland’s, Paul Byrne.
In Paul’s words, FUH is based on the idea that “we all have that friend who falls for totally the wrong person who is either mean to them or plain doesn’t like them, and even though everyone else can see it they themselves cannot. Their obsession or lust blinds them so that they just keep taking crap in the certainty that things will turn around. My protagonist takes it a step further and keeps repeating the same mistake again and again.”
FUH starts with a very funky rhythm with a guitar (with an octave pedal, perhaps) before the bass joins the mix and the drums create a great build into the first verse.
As soon as you’re into the full band feel with vocals, we were reminded very much of the great, INXS.
The shaker, panned left, is a lovely idea, and keeps the interest flowing nicely in the track. We love the background vocals and layered vocals that come in in the choruses. There’s a slight touch of Status Quo about the chorus – it has a real sing-along feel. Heavy reverb on the vocals during the chorus also helps make you want to join in. There are some well-conceived stops with just vocals in this track too that help maintain interest and make the build make into the full band much more explosive.
Taking inspiration from the lyrics to Paul McCartney’s FUH you, Byrne has managed to make this a radio-friendly track by using lines such as “I can’t stop falling, I’d better find some wings or I’m FUH…”. This adds a comedy element to the track, whilst making sure that the song is fit for radio! We love it. Did we hear an SOS morse code line in there too?
The guitar soloing in this track is a shining example of well-crafted blues rock. There were several times that the licks and riffs reminded us of the great Tommy Castro. This is really well-conceived and carefully considered soloing that really takes the track to a whole new level.
From a production perspective, we felt that a boost around 55Hz would add to the thump of the kick drum and a wide boost centred around 1kHz would add some extra ‘meat’ to the track giving it a fuller sound. A high shelf boost in the top octave would add to the ‘zing’ too. During the breakdown parts at the end of each chorus, there sounds like a morse-code-like tone behind the vocals which is kind of cool, however, we feel that a careful surgical cut at 620Hz would help it to fit a little better. Finally, there is something interesting happening at 305Hz….nothing! A large but thin EQ boost here would (to our ears) fill out the low mids a tiny bit more. Great track, and great sound. We’re looking forward to hearing more from this artist.
Paul Byrne was a new name to us today, but as big fans of INXS, this is most definitely an artist we can get behind. Classy rhythm and blues/ blues rock.