𓆩*𓆪New Single Release 𓆩*𓆪

Niamh Regan "Belly"

Niamh Regan’s back; and she’s brandishing her inimitable songwriting style that only seems to get better with every release. Nothing has displayed it with more clarity than new single Belly, which is, in usual Regan fashion, a banger, and one of her best yet.

I seriously love Niamh Regan. She is, in the purest sense of the term, a songwriter, with a gorgeously warm, homely voice to boot. It’s no surprise, then, that Belly has really knocked it out the park. Her 2nd single from the upcoming album Come As You Are, the track comes to terms with ‘feeling like a broken record and not being heard.’ In contrast to some of her previous work, it features a full band, but this doesn’t take away from the true intimacy of the single, and its lyrical content. The change in timbre feels confident – not jarring – and still maintains the soft, breezy atmosphere of her acclaimed debut album Hemet, while (thankfully for my emotional self) quietly omitting the more cry-worthy elements featured on earlier tracks. 

‘I won’t talk about it with friends […] / I won’t bring it up again’ the Galway singer-songwriter vocalises over a simple but solid drum beat, which drives some interesting – and unmistakably Regan – rhythmic choices during the chorus. The Regan that’s singing here is clearly a depleted one; one with a lack of self-confidence, one that’s given up trying to get her point across, and so opts for a deflated, deferential attitude – ‘Here you go, here you go’. It’s a sentiment that everyone can relate to, but one that seems more connected to a woman’s experience in life; constantly being spoken over, and not having her words listened to. The lyrical content of the track only pushes forward the familiarity and nostalgia of Belly’s sonics, and these are two areas of Regan’s music that seem inseparable. She’s the sort of musician who immediately assures you that they know what they’re doing, and her work only acts as surefire proof of this. And Belly is no different.

 Come As You Are is set to be released on the 1st of May.