100 Acres of Sycamore
| 100 Acres of Sycamore | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by Fionn Regan | ||||
| Released | 8 August 2011 | |||
| Genre | Folk | |||
| Label | Heavenly Records | |||
| Producer | Fionn Regan & Sean Read | |||
| Fionn Regan chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
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| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (71/100) |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| BBC | positive |
| Clash | (6/10) |
| Consequence of Sound | |
| Drowned in Sound | (6/10) |
| The Telegraph | |
| The Guardian | |
| NME | (5/10) |
100 Acres of Sycamore is the third studio album by Irish singer-songwriter Fionn Regan, released on 8 August 2011 on Heavenly Records. Unlike Regan's previous album, The Shadow of an Empire, which featured mostly rock and roll songs, the album foregrounds an acoustic aesthetic, similar to that of his debut, The End of History (2006).
Recorded in seven days, 100 Acres of Sycamore features a prominent string section throughout, and features backing vocal contributions from The Staves on the track, "North Star Lover".
Upon meeting actress Anna Friel in Benicassim, in 2010, Regan subsequently began writing 100 Acres of Sycamore whilst staying at her home in Deia, Majorca. Regarding the album's composition, Regan noted, "It was very fast, sometimes when you’re a writer it's like that, lightning strikes, the stars align for whatever reason. [...] The songs were very fast, they flew like liquid gold."
The album was recorded to tape using analogue methods, with Regan noting, "I just love the sound of it, I love the process. I love the idea that there's a master tape. It's a very potent thing." Regan and producer Sean Read recorded using the same console that The White Stripes used to record their fourth studio album, Elephant.
Much of the album's material was written in Deia, Majorca, with Regan stating, "I think if you could bottle a bit of the atmosphere and put it into the record, it's there. In saying that, I think it's spliced with walking in the woods in Ireland. Regarding his time in Deia, Regan noted, "That probably had most impact on the writing of the record. It’s sort of a place that’s laced with magic, it has the quality of a book, everything there feels like a dreamlike overtone to it. So a lot of the writing on the record and the way it sounds is my impression or whatever way that wove its way into the writing and it came back out in the record."
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