‘”13″ is the latest single from Irish singer/songwriter Ciaran Lavery and it’s like Ryan Adams, Conor Oberst and none other than Bob Dylan sat in a room together and churned out a song. “Love is like a suicide,” Lavery sings, his lyrics raw and his voice a bit raspy. Lavery’s first album, Let Bad In, won him a Northern Ireland Music Prize and he just might score one for his recently released second album, Sweet Decay. It’s a brutally honest record that tells stories that are full of spit and vinaigrette if ever there was one. Produced by Grammy Award winner Ruadhri Cushnan (Mumford & Sons, Ed Sheeran), the pristine album erupts with songs that you’ll likely find companionship with the next time someone rips your heart out and chews on it right in front of you. Not that you need to be emotionally devastated to appreciate Lavery’s ruminations on life and love. Hardly. You simply need to be alive to understand where he’s coming from. It’s the human condition that Lavery explores most and he doesn’t pull any punches. On the contrary, he delivers a knockout.
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