REVIEW: Singer-Songwriter Lorkin O’Reilly Faces His Past On Sophomore Album ‘Marriage Material’

After immigrating to the U.S. in 2012 after high school to work on a farm, Scottish singer-songwriter Lorkin O’Reilly began his natural progression into music after stumbling on an old guitar in the basement. The songs he wrote would eventually lead the way for his debut EP After The Thaw, and more notably his debut full-length Heaven Depends in 2018.

While based in New York state working construction, he began documenting his story through twangy finger-picking guitar and poetic folk storytelling, and finished Heaven Depends by 2018. But between then and now, a lot has changed for O’Reilly and parts of his story carry over, while others have come to an abrupt stop.

His experience of moving to a new country at 18 and then marrying young before evidently separating is at the core of his new album Marriage Material. Given the context, its self-depreciating title is a foreshadow into O’Reilly’s blend of humorous and melancholic songwriting; it’s subtle but it’s there (i.e. killing Hitler with a rolling pin on “Napoleon Complex”). Similar to the details of his guitar playing, he maintains a steady, minimalist composure throughout.

Like a well-rehearsed coping mechanism, he comfortably pokes fun at his changing body as he approaches 30, and his odd routines to battle homesickness on “Pelé Pelé”, a song that came to be while soaking in a bath tub watching soccer.

“One of my rituals during quarantine was to take long baths in the evening and watch Youtube highlights of old soccer games”, he explains of the song’s origin. “I think a lot of immigrants can relate to the comfort in submerging oneself in cultural pastimes. At least, hearing the commentators’ accents, seeing the faces of the fans and hearing the songs really helped me when feeling homesick. I find sports really fascinating. These men and women, dressed in beautiful matching outfits with “Marvel”-esque physiques are effectively superheroes in all but a cape. They unite countries, cities and families. We applaud their genius when they succeed and shout and curse when they fail. Anyways: I enjoyed the juxtaposition between “superhero” and man in the bath feeling self-conscious about his weight.”

Naturally, for Marriage Material, the strength comes within songs about friendships, family, and the end of relationships. Personal favourite “Still You” opens the wounds of his failed marriage as he quietly sings about the distractions that attempt to quicken the healing process of a break-up. His hypnotic finger-picking strumming style revolves around a lullaby-esque melody that is accentuated by his low, crawling delivery.

“I wrote this song shortly after my wife and I separated. There can be a lot of peer pressure to “move on”’ after a relationship ends. With friends encouraging us to date someone else, sleep around or move to a new city. Yet we both found “moving on” to take a long time. Lyrically, I tried to keep this song as direct as possible. Just a simple message told from the perspective of both partners and the friend group.”

And the candid, direct songwriting pays off, painting relatable and realistic visuals of discussions amongst friends that are trying to be helpful but ultimately failing: “Why is it so hard to choose / problem is I’m still in love with you”. There’s a defeat in his voice that can only be conquered with time.

Reworking his 2019 hit “Twist”, Lorkin brings along friend and Irish singer-songwriter Laura Quirke to bring a new layer to the track that was originally written as a duet. His examination of masculinity and expectations of romance come alive with the new call-and-response style, with Quirke’s rustic folk vocals standing tall against his. About the song he adds, “‘Twist’ deals with the beginning-of-the-end of a marriage and the pitfalls of an open relationship. Our marriage fell apart for a number of reasons but certainly there’s things I would have liked to have done differently. It felt important to own those things in this song“.

Like a true showman, Lorkin saves the best for last with “Baby Steps”. Aptly written at the end of the recording process, the album’s closing track is an amalgamation of the entire record, laying out the progression of his life in “baby steps”, a phrase brought out during a phone call with his mother. “It took a while for the narrative of the album to form but once it did I wanted to write something that encapsulated it all. From moving to the states in 2012, to getting married, working through the separation and finally starting to “move on.” America was an unknown place to me at the time, seen only through pop-culture“.

“What a journey this has been / since flying out to JFK to start this big adventure in the States”, he recounts with a calm, consistent demeanour. For six minutes, he summarizes his time in the United States, hypnotizing listeners with his story and delicate delivery with a calming sense of control and command.

No different than talking to a stranger at a coffee shop about their life story, Marriage Material is an unexpected collection that is wonderfully simple and intriguing. Drama may be popularized with tantrums and flashy reality shows, but for Lorkin O’Reilly it is best served on an acoustic guitar to those who will listen.

Enjoy the full album below: