The Fat Lady Sings >> Sunday Business Post Review
“Essentially Ireland's answer to Prefab Sprout, The Fat Lady Sings
deserved better than their eventual status as a minor footnote of Irish
rock. A couple of poor tracks aside, this singles compilation is hugely
enjoyable.
Even 16 years on, Arclight still sounds brilliant, four twinkling, melancholic
minutes worthy of The Blue Nile. Nothing else here matches it, though the
music-box waltz of Dronning Maud Land comes close. Nick Kelly sounds like
a more restrained Cathal Coughlan at times, though his lyrical concerns
couldn't be more different: lost love, self-doubt, the personal rather than
the political.
You can hear them moving towards a more commercial sound on the later tracks.
Show of Myself, in particular, sounds like a different band. They split
in 1994,with Kelly going on to release two well-received solo albums. Fine
as this is, it would be worth picking up even if it consisted of Arclight
and nine turkeys… (4/5)”