Stripped down to a nervous shiver of trilling guitars, brushwires and spectral voice, “Full Moon, Empty Belly”, the latest single from Michael J. Sheehy (backed by his band, the Hired Mourners), takes the lead from his previous outings as a solo musician. Former frontman of the atmospheric and noisy Dream City Film Club, a trash-glam rock band that traded on Sheehy‘s alternately growling and crooning tenor, the British singer-guitarist now plumbs a slumbering gothic Americana, full of augury and desire.
Gin-soaked to the bone and as spare as the arid landscapes it evokes, “Full Moon, Empty Belly” (performed live here at the Green Note) promises much in the way of oneiric atmospheres and troubled emotion on its upcoming parent album, Don’t We Deserve Some Kind of Love? releasing on 5th June. As always, Michael J. Sheehy’s voice is in fine form; a silvery, bruised quaver that rides wind and song like an injured sparrow seeking shelter.