Press
The Clare People April 2007
Kittsers ten tracks for an imaginary mixtape for The Clare People
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The Irish News April 2007
David Kitt explains why he never tires of playing up North
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Q Review November 2006
4/5 Review of Not Fade Away
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Sunday Times Culture Section, October 29th 2006
Pop CD Of The Week.
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The Times - The Knowledge, Nov 3rd 2006.
Review Of "Not Fade Away"
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Music Mart, Nov 2006.
9/10 Review of "Not Fade Away".
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Alternative Ulster, Nov 2006
Five Star Review of "Not Fade Away"
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Galway Advertiser, 05/10/2006
David's Star & His Lucky Magic Numbers, by Kernan Andrews.
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article as PDF
Hot Press, 24/08/2006
With his new album Not Fade Away constituting something of a post-major
label comeback, David Kitt is gigging for it. by Partick Gleeson
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article
Irish Examiner, 23/08/2006
David Kitt's new album is a departure from the quiet introspection
of his previos work, says Ed Power.
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full article
The Irish News, 17/08/2006
David Kitt launches his fifth album Not Fade Away, tomorrow in Ireland,
on his own Dublin Discs label. An international release is pencilled
in for October. Adhmhan Mac Conmhaoil caught up with the Dubliner to
talk ab out his latest recording...
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full article
Metro 17/08/06
New Albums: David Kitt - Not Fade Away
Listening to his drowsy croon you might never guess it, but David Kitt
has been in the wards. Dropped by his record label, the Dubliner has
spent the past two years grasping for a fresher sound. More than anything
else, he as wished to spring free of the purgatory of singer-songwriter
cultdom. While it is difficult to envisage is fifth LP Not Fad Away
every shifting a million copes it is certainly the most commercial thing
Kitt has yet recorded. Kicking off with the icy guitar crunc of One
Clear Way, the singer signals his nw direction from the outset, delivering
a convincing impersonation of mid-1990s indie rock. Elsewhere, Kitt
cribs a few tricks from Joy Division and invites The Magic Numbers'
Romeo and Michelle Stoddart to contribute backing vocals. In fact, the
project is awash with cameos: also featured are Ann Scott and Damien
Rice collaborator Lisa Hannigan. Though it sags in places, Not Fade
Away adds up to one of the year's most emphatic comebacks.
4/5
Eamon Miller
Sunday Tribune, 13/08/2006
He may never be flavour of the month again, but after being dropped
by his label and accused of turning 'soppy', Dubliner David Kitt is
a least rediscovering his voice...
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Star Sunday, 13/08/06
Review: David Kitt - Not Fade Away
No one could blame David Kitt if he was bitter. He was the original
singer-songwriter armed with just his guitar and a drum machine. But
he fell behind after 2003's lackluster Square One LP while every clown
with an acoustic sold-out big venues across the land. Heck, we've ev
en imported singer- songwriters from America, such is the demand. But
now Kitt's got his groove back. Not Fade Away has several cracking tunes
and collaborations. Best of all is Up To You, which features Michelle
from the Magic Numbers - it's a match made in Heaven. And the simple
yet brilliant Guilty Prayers, Pointless Ends, single Say No More and
Don't F**k With Me are all the sound of a man bang back in form. Four
Stars.
“Not Fade Away”
CD Of The Week
The Ticket, The Irish Times, 11/08/2006
It may be best to start by graphing out David Kitt’s career in terms of his releases to date. Such a sketch would start off on a high thanks to his Small Moments debut, before taking an even steeper incline to his masterful The Big Romance album. But that’s where the climbing stops. The graph would then head downwards to 2003’s patchy Square One and nosedive completely with 2004’s ill-considered and largely redundant covers album The Black & Red Notebook. Since then, Kitt has been engaged in much wound-licking and stock-taking, both creatively and in his personal life, so it’s no understatement to say that much is riding on how this album is received.It may be best to start by graphing out David Kitt’s career in terms of his releases to date. Such a sketch would start off on a high thanks to his Small Moments debut, before taking an even steeper incline to his masterful The Big Romance album. But that’s where the climbing stops. The graph would then head downwards to 2003’s patchy Square One and nosedive completely with 2004’s ill-considered and largely redundant covers album The Black & Red Notebook. Since then, Kitt has been engaged in much wound-licking and stock-taking, both creatively and in his personal life, so it’s no understatement to say that much is riding on how this album is received. Not Fade Away demonstrates that Kitt has finally figured out where his strengths as a musician and songwriter lie. Besides the tough, brooding mood in play on certain tracks, Kitt has also found his way back to the playful electronic backwash and the evocative, folk haze and hush of his earlier work. It’s a heady mix, with tunes that soar high with innocent charm (One Clear Way, With You) and tracks that show a lot more bite and menace than Kitt has ever had at his disposal (I Know the Reason, Don’t Fuck with Me). Above all else, Not Fade Away is the sound of vindication. That graph may well have to be altered again.
4/5
Jim Carroll
Hot Press, 11/08/2006
Major record labels can be harsh and fickle mistresses. When you first
get into bed with them, they promise you the big romance - sun, moon
& stardom. If your album doesn’t instantly sell by the plane
load though, they swiftly fuck you. Or stop fucking you, as the case
may be.Like all musical artists before him, David Kitt has learned this
the hard way. After a lot of (justifiable) hype, he lost his major deal
when 2003’s loved up and soulful Square One failed to repeat its
chart topping Irish sucess elsewhere. While it certainly had its moments,
the covers album whic followed, 2004’s The Black & Red Notebook
sounded like the work of someone who’d seriously lost both their
inner confidence and artistic bearings. Thankfully, on the defiantly
angry Not Fade Away, he appears to have found them again. Most of the
album was recorded in Kittser’s own home studio in Dublin, and
produced and mixed with the assistance of the ubiquitious Karl Odlum
and respected Swedish producer Tore Johansson (who’s previous
credits include Franz Ferdinand and The Cardigans. He had a little help
from his friends as well, Singers Lisa Hannigan & Annie Tierney,
members of The Redneck Manifesto and The Magic Numbers, and his younger
brother Robbie, have all thrown their respective talents into the mix.
There really isn’t a dud amongst the eleven tracks. The gloriously
ambient and uplifting “Up To You” should have perhaps been
entitled “Note To Self” ( “I was waiting for a round
of applause/But it’s just one lost cause/ After another lost cause”).
He rocks out as he hits rock bottom on ‘Say No More’: “Hit
a real bad slump on Friday night/Got whiskey drunk, got into a fight”.
The synthesised ‘Don’t Fuck With Me’ undoubtedly speaks
from where his head is currently at (and, by all accounts, is already
a live favourite). With its repeated refrain of “I’d rather
have one chance than have no chance at all,” the slow-burning,
jangly album closer ‘With You’ stays, well, long after its
faded out. While ‘Not Fade Away’ has its moments of doubt,
despair, angst and desperation its not an angst-ridden record. This
is ultimately a wake up call to himself, and the sweet, sweet sound
of an artistic re-birth. Kittser fans will most definitly be satisfied,
and those who’ve yet to discover the wrok of this unique and gifted
irish artist are in for a real treat. Meanwhile, the doubters at his
old record label will be kicking themselves.
8.5 / 10
Olaf Tyaransen
The Irish Independent, 11/08/06
David Kitt’s last studio album, 2003’s Square 1, was full
of the joys of love. He had just got married and was channeling his
unbridled enthusiasm into an album of songs that some found a little
too cloying.There’s no fear of that happening here. Not Fade Away
- as it’s title suggests - is a defiant angry album. The soppy
lyrics have been replaced by disillusionment, regret and unhappiness
as typified by the opening salvo of One Clear Day, Grey Day and the
emotive It’s Up To You which features the vocals of The Magic
Numbers Michelle Stoddart.There are plenty of signs that Kitt has expanded
his sonic palate. Lead single Say No More clocks in at a brezzy two-and-a-half-minutes
and offers a giddy dollop of power pop. Its perhaps the most radio-friendly
song he has ever released. Lisa Hannigan, Damien Rice’s regular
cohort, lends her vocals to Don’t Fuck With Me - a jerky, funky
dancefloor confection with an eerie undercurrent. Think Chic meets Kraftwerk.
4/5
Review of the Week - Irish Independent
David Kitt, Whelan's Dublin - 4/5
“Live Reviews”
Irish Times, Dundalk Spirit Store, 26/07/2006
The man they call Kittser has been quiet of late;he has been having
managerial “issues”; (now solved, by all accounts), as well
as whittling a number of new songs into shape. A new album is fortcoming
- Not Fade Away, which could be a pointed title considering that in
the past few years David Kitt’s lo-fi acoustic stylings have been
overshadowed by the emergence of more lo-fi acts than we could ever
want to cope with. Undertaking a series of low-key gigs, therefore,
is a good way by which to road-test new material, particularily when
you have a couple of new band members. This gig was sectioned into two
(and one presumes all these low-key outings will be similarly structured):
the first half was a run through of the new album, the second segment
consisted of crowd favourites and nominal hits. As first impressions
go, the new material sounds more robust than we are used to from Kitt;
any further comment would be unfair, as if there is one thing we have
learned about Kitt’s music over the past seven or so years is
that it needs time to settle, to find its own level. It’s outwardily
naive, occasionaly awkward, very likeable, a tad dishevelled (a bit
like Kitt himself, perhaps?) but repeated listening to this music highlights
work that has a special talent for pulling melodies out of very thin
air. In the past Kitt’s aimlessness (more irritating than charming,
to be honest) threatened to suck the life out of his material, and while
there are still elements of such disregard of a clocking-in / clocking-out
song structure, it bodes well for him in that in this performance he
sems to have struck a very serviceable balance. Kitt encored with a
pair of songs that saw him and the band enter the zone of Zen-like indifference
to time and space (and the fact that people have to get up for work
the following day). The music is rugged and gorgeous - riff-laden, raga-driven,
a total bullseye.
Tony Clayton-Lea
Irish Independent, 25/07/2006
Sell-out crowd takes to Kitt's defiant new vibe
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