Album review: THE PETAL FALLS – Workin’ All Night Workin’ All Day

September 5th, 2020 by jason

Rock Avenue Records [Release date 31.07.20]

This is my new favourite album of 2020, by UK band, The Petal Falls “Workin’ All Night Workin’ All Day” and if the impressive production is anything to go by, this band most certainly has been – what a debut album!

Keith Leahy, singer & songwriter, demonstrates breadth and depth of range to his vocals, with powerful lyrics and big band production making this my album find of the year. From the opening track, “A Man in Chains”, you’re drawn into this band’s world and you can hear various influences in each track, but the Petal Falls sound is both unique and warmly familiar at the same time.

I jotted down various influences that I could hear from 80’s Roxy Music, Big Country, The Killers, Bruce Springsteen and The Gaslight Anthem …. they are so varied and every track was punching above its weight.

Personal favourites the title track “Workin’ All Night, Workin’ All Day”, “Have a Little Faith” and “Colours” but it was hard to choose as the whole album is superb.

How refreshing in Lockdown to see a band making such high quality music – I can’t pigeonhole the sound but I love it. This is simply a fantastic debut….apparently 2 years in the making, and it was worth the wait. I really hope the next album lives up to the expectations set by this one! ****

Review by Karen Clayton

Keith answered a few questions for us about the album and the band’s future plans…

The album has taken some time to come out. Can you tell us a little more about how ‘Workin’ All Night, Workin’ All Day’ came about?

It’s been a massive journey to get this first album released, and an album that should have been released a long time ago, and for reasons that I won’t particularly go into now but let’s just say that there are some people in this industry who are so tone deaf they wouldn’t know a great song if it jumped up and bit them on the arse.

The album is a good cross mixture of The Petal Falls music with songs about Love, Life and disaster sprinkled throughout it. The title track “Workin’ All Night, Workin’ All Day” for instance is a song I wrote about inequality and how we all strive to make better lives for ourselves no matter who we are and what our circumstances are. “Rain” is about surviving a river breaking it’s banks and “Mariah” is about clinging to a difficult relationship with all the insecurity it breeds. So a pretty wide spread of subjects but I hope with enough variety to interest people in the music overall.

Have you been pleased with the reviews and reaction to the album so far?

The only word that describes it actually is astonished. It’s been quite humbling to see the huge amount of very kind words that have been posted and said over the air about The Petal Falls music and it makes me incredibly proud to be a part of that sound. I hope people will come onboard with the music and support it even more by buying the album.

For someone new to the sound of The Petal Falls, how would you describe it to them?

The Petal Falls music is a meal made of lush, deep production with smart interesting lyrics followed up by lashings of huge catchy choruses..doesn’t that sound delicious..lol

How did you hook-up with Rock Avenue Records? Will they be releasing future albums from the band?

The music was originally a self release but RAR heard it in May of this year and contacted me to see if they could sign The Petal Falls to the label it was that simple and that quick.

A bolt from the blue and yes there is more music on the way although this early in the release of the first album I don’t think it will be until next year that a new TPF album will be released.

With the current pandemic how has it affected you, aside from not being able to play live. Has it perhaps allowed more time to promote the album and maybe create more new music?

These are tough times for the entire industry at the moment but it has allowed more time to promote the album and yes a lot more music is on the way in fact there is so much new music it’s finding time to record it all that worries me..lol

What have the band planned for the rest of the year and for next year?

With everything that’s going on right now in the world this year is about consolidation and building a fanbase that will allow The Petal Falls to grow by getting lot’s and lot’s of people to listen, share and buy The Petal Falls music. That will be more than enough to achieve this year of all years. Fingers crossed next year will be a cracker of a year for everyone.

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