West Wales-based songwriter Louis O'Hara walks onstage with "A Peaceful Kind Of Fun," a 14-track-long debut released on Libertino Records. Recorded in Spain with his band His Burley Chassis and steered by the careful hand of producer James Trevascus, the album offers a writer who's already in complete control of his material, poetic, emotionally fluent, and not afraid to sit inside life's quieter truths.
The resulting 43-minute journey creates a beautiful mosaic of memory, place, loss, and the small joys that hold a life together. It kicks off with "The Kid In Me," a warm, clear-eyed meditation on the persistence of childhood echoes. Themes of innocence and rediscovery give the album a through line, and this track becomes something of an overture, honest, melodic, and unforced.
O'Hara then glides effortlessly between personal history and larger emotional geographies. "Just Grand" and "Sunnyhill Farm" buzz with the textures of home, rural air, family rhythms, and the gentle weight of the known. He jumps back and forth between languages effortlessly on "Mewn Llun" and again with "Llygaid Glas," rooting the album in the landscapes and cultural threads of West Wales without sacrificing its universal appeal.
The album's newly released single, "Magpie," serves as a magnetic centerpiece, sweeping, even, and quietly propulsive, demonstrating O'Hara's gift for making small details echo in some potent, lasting ways. Tracks like "Munnelly," "Audrey," and "Married" pursue that thread, portraying connections with an intimacy that feels lived-in rather than staged.
A highlight is the emotionally translucent and deeply moving track "Tears." There's an openness that O'Hara taps into here, but she approaches it with an unassuming hand, never pushing her sentiment, constantly mining for the truth. Its reflection sits alongside a grit-locked resolve to press ahead in "Finally Stick" and a soft, loping sense of place in "Tŷ Ger Y Môr."
The closing stretch, "Truman's Road" and "Plant a Tree," lands as if with a sense of arrival. They're like roots being planted, endings turning into beginnings. It's the fitting end to an album built on the silent strength of reflection. Louis O'Hara's debut album, A Peaceful Kind of Fun, is a quiet and heartrending work. It is closely attuned to life, respects what it encounters, and stays with you long after the last note sounds.
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