The highly anticipated collaboration album ‘In the Game’, from Mick Flannery and Susan O’Neill is out today on CD, vinyl and digital.
In a first for Flannery, one of Ireland’s most acclaimed songwriters and singers, he and Irish newcomer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Susan O’Neill have come together on a collaboration album ‘ In the Game’. The award-winning, double platinum selling artist has released six studio albums, three of which reached No. 1 status. His last offering in 2019 received high praise as his finest to date: ‘Mick Flannery has a voice for the ages, a complete Master of his craft’ cited by Clash Magazine, whilst The Sunday Times said he “conjures up exquisite story-telling’. ‘In the Game’ does not break this spell, as Mick continues to deliver stories never heard before. This time with a story-telling partner, by way of the unparalleled voice of Susan O’Neill.
Having wowed huge festival stages over the past few years moonlighting with Irish dance band ‘King Kong Company’ and accompanying the queen of traditional music Sharon Shannon on her international tours, Susan has now spent the last while honing her own craft. Susan is a songwriter of hidden depths, a singer with a voice that is equal parts balm and blowtorch. She is audacity personified, a free spirit. A real performer. As of now Ireland’s best kept secret, on the release of ‘In the Game’ this however is all about to change.
The album was written and recorded over the summer of 2020 during lockdown, between Cork and Los Angeles. Produced ‘virtually’ by LA based, Australian producer Tony Buchen (Courtney Barnett, Smashing Pumpkins, Tim Finn), and featuring musicians from both Ireland and America.
The songs on ‘In the Game’ tell a sorry, salutary story: the likes of Are We Free? (‘Tell me when you’re ready to be never satisfied’), These Are the Days (‘It was better to learn a hard lesson and go, than to never try and never know’), Baby Talk (‘If real is in the feeling, baby, no one is a fake’), and the title track (‘Oh darling, what would have happened if only we’d had a good run’) offer up longing and redemption. The album as an entity seeps equal measures of seduction and sorrow, desire and despair, while the songs are delivered simplistically yet potently.
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