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All Music Guide:
Armed with a truly outstanding debut single, "Monsters Under the Bed," that recalls artists ranging from Odelay-era Beck to '80s U.K. cult heroes the Television Personalities, Eugene McGuinness appeared rather out of nowhere in 2007, seeming like he might be the Damon Albarn of the current set of neo-Brit-popsters following in the wake of the Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand. Like Albarn, McGuinness is a singer and songwriter of varied tastes whose talents extend beyond what's currently fashionable, with an eye for mixing and matching unexpected influences (in an early interview, he claimed to be equally enamored of Broadway master Stephen Sondheim and U.K. grime star Dizzee Rascal, and elements of both appear in his music) into a unique personal style. Born in 1985 in London to Northern Irish parents and raised in Liverpool, McGuinness started writing songs in his mid-teens. By the age of 20, McGuinness was signed to the publishing arm of the hottest British indie label of the time, Domino Records. In early 2007, Domino formed a special subsidiary label, Double Six Records, to release McGuinness' debut single, a nervy, synth-driven ode to information overload and insomnia. A BBC Radio 1 session followed in the spring after the single's immediate success, and an eight-track mini-album, The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinness, was released by Double Six in the summer. McGuinness' eponymous sophomore effort arrived the following year. Glue, a collaboration with Eugene's brother Dominic McGuinness, was released under the moniker Eugene and the Lizards in 2009. It was followed in 2012 by McGuinness' third studio outing, The Invitation to the Voyage.
Wikipedia:
Eugene Michael McGuinness (born August 1985 in Leytonstone, London) is a British singer-songwriter and frontman of Eugene + the Lizards. He is currently living in London and is of Irish heritage.
Music career [edit]
McGuinness's first release, The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinness, was released on 6 August 2007 on Domino Records' sublabel Double Six Records. Although the extended play was less than half an hour long, it received praise from critics. BBC reviewer Chris White called it "brimful with ideas" and stated that McGuinness' voice on the record "soars euphorically and coos playfully with equal aplomb". Drowned in Sound gave the EP a rating of 9/10, saying "McGuinness has a way with words that's quite remarkable". However, despite gaining the backing of its critics, it failed to chart in the United Kingdom.
Following the good response of Learnings, he went on to release his eponymous debut album, Eugene McGuinness, on the Domino label on 13 October 2008. Unlike the last release, Eugene McGuinness is a full-length album with 12 tracks. The album received generally positive reviews from critics. Drowned in Sound labelled it "a bold and confident piece of brilliance, equally off kilter as it is tenderly raw". The BBC said that the album "runs the formative gamut of angsty, carefree, happy-sad, hormone-fuelled, late-teens emotions with a solipsistic disregard for any feelings but his own". NME gave the album 8 out of 10, and The Times named it their album of the week. Meanwhile an Observer journalist called the album "busily eclectic but... can make no great claims to originality". Allmusic gave it 4 out of 5 stars, saying that "the arrival of Eugene McGuinness a true cause for celebration".
McGuinness began playing as Eugene + the Lizards, along with his brother Dominic McGuinness, Malcolm Lunan and John Barrett. On 30 November 2009, they released their first album together, Glue. It was originally released as a 6-track limited edition 10" vinyl record, which then came with a digital code to download all 6 tracks plus the additional 4 tracks online for free, though the full album is now available on iTunes and AmazonMp3.
Alongside playing as a session and tour member for Miles Kane, Eugene finished the recording of his third album in London. The Invitation to the Voyage was released on August 6, 2012 and contains the singles "Lion", "Thunderbolt", "Shotgun" and "Harlequinade".
