Anecdotes of the simultaneously idiosyncratic and mundane characters of everyday life pervade the narrative of the latest single ‘Enough is Never Enough’ from Galway band The Clockworks.
With Joycean vigour, outsider observations of the bigoted cafe owner through to the buskers in reverie are unified by their existence within a corrupt and unjust society. All soundtracked behind an infectious melody and jaunted instrumentation.
Written during lockdown when disillusionment and restlessness have become a day-to-day experience, the brooding guitar riff enters with an equally as brooding lament as lead singer James McGregor deadpans “It was a Tuesday, and it was a bleak”. The lyrics then take the kitchen-sink narrative trope quite literally as McGregor becomes the troubadour for a scene where the cafe owner “enters a cafe he owns / to bark marching orders, on poor kitchen porters”. These little vignettes of the working people, ensue fragmented guitar work, which accumulates into a buoyant melody where McGregor refrains “Enough is Never Enough”.
Speaking on the track McGregor explains: “This was the last song we wrote in Ireland. I’d been working on the lyrics for ages. I like to write about the social or emotional by writing about a specific character or scene. I think focusing on the particular and the specific is the best way to get to the general and abstract… Musically, this song was all about getting the feeling right. We wanted it to be forceful and relentless but also for there to be enough space for melody and emotion.”
The release of ‘Enough is Never Enough’ comes as part of the latest and last in a series for the legendary Alan McGee’s Creation 23 label. The post-punk revival may be saturated with bands similar to The Clockworks, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t give them your time.
Words by Charity Swales
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