You’re Not The One is the closing track from up and coming Irish indie-folk band Rowan’s debut EP – which was released into the wild last week, on November 20th. It’s a pity I don’t have a huge amount of time at the moment to write about everything I get sent in, because I’m sure I could write a lot more about the five songs that make up the rather excellent No One Is Safe Here. As things stand, our twenty-month-old dictator son has decided he can get by on just a couple of hours sleep every night, so it’s all out warfare here.

Rowan are a band that know how to write the kind of songs that you could imagine mass crowds singing back at them. Indeed, looking at their bio, that’s exactly what they do. I’m taking well-crafted, anthemic, rousing pop songs that are lusciously rendered with the kind of melodies your brain feels like it already knows, effortlessly dynamic and largely acoustic arrangements, and gorgeous harmonies. This is no more evident than on You’re Not The One. All of the above elements are there in abundance, alongside some fantastic strings, and a lead vocal that at times reminds of Thom Yorke’s around the time of The Bends. It’s very, very good.

If you’re a fan of stuff like Radiohead, Arcade Fire, The Strokes, Villagers, and Flyte, then Rowan are going to be right up your street. The Cork-based band – consisting of Dylan Howe, Fionn Hennessy-Hayes, and Kevin Herron – have set themselves a high bar with No One Is Safe Here, and it’s going to be interesting to see what the future has in store.

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