Thoughtful sixth album from Irish singer-songwriter.
Mark Geary was born in Dublin but spent 20 years living in New York, having won a green card in the lottery, where he set up home in the East Village’s fabled Sin-É Café, playing between Katell Keineg and Jeff Buckley on Monday nights. ‘In The Time Of Locusts’ is Geary’s sixth studio album, his first for seven years and his first since recently returning to County Kildare, where this record was recorded.
The 11 songs on the record are thoughtful and melodic. ‘The Forest’, which opens the album and features Ruth O’Mahony Brady of The Frames on keyboards, references Geary’s retreat into the woods during the pandemic to “watch the incredible work of nature that was unaware of the calamity of the world”. Many of the songs on the album reflect the human condition, ‘Last Throw Of The Dice’, is one of these in which Geary implores to be kept away from ‘the poison ivy’. ‘Coward’ is a contemplative song about admitting one’s frailties and the impact of this on other people.
‘Spectre’ is another of the record’s highlights, which recalls ghosts of the past. The album ends with ‘The Great Escape’ which considers the breakdown of relationships. This is a body of work which is very much formed by the isolation which many people experienced during 2020 when the world was locked down. ‘In The Time Of Locusts‘ is an album which is a considered response to a time which for many people was a time of isolation, loss and grief, as well as to a world in turmoil.
