The hope here seems to have been that, in singer-songwriter Kieran Kennedy, producer
Pete Anderson (who usually works with
Dwight Yoakam) had come upon another Bono or
Bob Dylan in the making, so Kennedy's modest songs are blown up to mock-heroic proportions, notably with the addition of electric guitar, frequently played by
Anderson. The band gamely goes along with this approach, but you can tell that this isn't what they'd sound like down the pub, and you suspect you'd like them better there. ~ William Ruhlmann