Ricky Warwick - Belfast Confetti

Ricky Warwick isn’t a name that rings many bells nowadays. He was the vocalist and guitar player for the UK based act called The Almighty. He was also the husband of Vanessa Warwick who presented the MTV Headbangers Ball during the nineties. Well, ever since The Almighty disbanded in 2001 he turned to the singer songwriter section in which he just released his third album called Belfast Confetti.

 

It’s not very often that I’m reviewing singer songwriter albums for Metalrage. To be honest this is the second one ever since I started reviewing for Metalrage, which isn’t strange because we are still a metal website. But let’s move on to the album. With this name it’s I guess there will be a lot of folk influences on the album and after a few spins I discovered Ricky Warwick didn’t let me down on that one.

 

During the first couple of songs there are some great folk influences present, especially ‘The Arms Of Belfast Town’ is a great example with the sing along chorus and the fiddle. Not only within the music but also within the lyrics the folk element comes back when Ricky tells about growing up in Belfast and the everlasting struggle that comes along with the working class hero existence.

 

The greatest thing about this album is that its diversity reminds me a bit of Bruce Springsteen. There are some great up tempo songs like ‘Can’t Wait For Tomorrow’ and ‘In The Arms Of Belfast Town’ but also pure acoustic songs like ‘Punchin’ Thunder’ and ‘Born Fighting’. Along the way there’s also ‘Thousands Are Leaving’, which has such a great eighties vibe in it that it could have even been a hit back then. A great album that has given me shivers down my spine for several times.