his is one of the greatest albums you will never hear, unless of course my frenzied hosannas over the next few paragraphs can persuade a few beneficent souls to gamble some of their hard-earned cash. Heck, forget cash, this album is worth racking up a little credit card debt for! So who the hell is Cathal Coughlan? Well, by way of background, one of the first things you see when you visit his website is the following wry statement: ?Please remember that downloading mp3 files damages the music industry ? so do it early, often and cheerfully...? Hmmm, ?bitterness', I hear you wonder? Definitely.

Coughlan has been making music ever since the 1980s when he fronted Microdisney, who blended Coughlan's acerbic lyrics with guitarist Sean O'Hagan's bouncy pop melodies. Despite being signed to Virgin, nobody, or at least not enough people listened and in 1988 the band imploded. O'Hagan went on to form The High Llamas , while Coughlan formed The Fatima Mansions, which provided a more appropriate musical outlet for his righteous rage. More critical acclaim followed, with highlights including the blistering ?Blues for Ceaucescu' single, a support slot for U2 in 1992 which culminated in a near riot in Milan, after Coughlan simulated sodomizing himself with a statue of the Virgin Mary, and even found themselves at Number 1 in the U.K charts with a terrifying (and frankly awful, although whether more awful than the original is open to question), musical decomposition of Bryan Adams ?Everything I Do (I Do it For You)', which shared double A-sided status with The Manic Street Preachers' version of the theme from MASH. But, yes, you guessed it, all this was met with continued indifference by the record buying public and in 1996 The Fatima Mansions went the way of the dodo. Two solo albums, Grand Necropolitan in 1996 and Black River Falls

in 2000 bring us to 2003, and The Sky's Awful Blue, released by Coughlan on his own Beneath Music label in Europe and in the U.S. by the tiny Stop, Pop, and Roll label.

It's fitting that for someone who exists at the very periphery of the music industry, that his songs should be populated with those who live on the periphery of society: tramps, murderers, prostitutes, thieves, junkies, convicts, and the rogue republic of Viagrastan. Stylistically, The Sky's Awful Blue mirrors Coughlan's previous solo efforts, presenting a bare acoustic/classical approach, with cellos, clarinets, flutes, and Coughlan's self-described ?piano mistreatments? all lending further intimacy to his portraits of tortured souls and empty lives.

The album opens with the solemn lament of ?And Springtime Followed Summer', which aches of weariness, mistakes made ?the churchmen are saying it wasn't their fault / and they'll fix the whole thing if they're asked,? and chances lost, culminating in a late night encounter with a prostitute. ?She went with men for money / I begged her to hold my hand / We sauntered down the main street / as the birds flew forth and sang / We went to the four-star hotel / the 22 nd floor / The light was dim but merry / as she set to work I roared / I wept with indignation for the life I'd almost had / ?Never mind?, she said to me / ?There's still time left, maybe it won't be so bad.?

In an album full of emotional ups and downs, mainly downs, ?You Turned Me' is clearly the high (or low) point. It also underscores Coughlan's abilities as a songwriter, with the bare minimum of words conveying maximum emotional impact. ?And the looks became words / and the words became flesh / and the heat of summer came screaming out of me and you / and all our aimlessness / and treachery too / You turned me / drew back every blind / shedding scalding light into corners that I didn't know / concerned me.? All set against a soothing background of hushed strings and a lonely, mournful clarinet with Coughlan's mellow baritone fitting the mood like a glove.

On ?Amused as Hell,' Coughlan returns to the type of social commentary that characterized much of his work with The Fatima Mansions. A jaunty and poppy track, it's a little out of place compared to the rest of the album, but whatever sheen there is on the music can't hide the biting lyrics. ?Now there's a purchase to smooth every frown / trucks packed with catalogs yawn into town / Billboards and flatscreens announce all is well / the peak of our history, united, assured / amused as hell.? The CD also contains a video for ?Amused as Hell', in which Coughlan solemnly, but hilariously, ridicules our 24-hour news culture and obsession with news ?personalities.?

I could go on and on, but am already pushing my luck with my editor. Other highlights include, ?Denial of the Right to Dream', possibly a contrarian view of Irelands Celtic Tiger economy in recent years, ?A Drunken Hangman', and the apparent optimism of ?Goodbye Sadness' that's quickly dispelled with lines like ?He spoke of the need for more layoffs / as his golf pals suggested he do / Technology stuff would mop the lives up / computer graphics and digital bluff.?

You might be surprised to hear that the album isn't perfect, but its damn close. ?Pawnshop Riches' engages in a little too much deconstructionist doodling, and on Coughlan's musical arrangement of Robert Burns ?Now Westlin Winds', he comes across sounding a little like Jim Kerr of Simple Minds did at the beginning of ?Belfast Child', and that, as they say, is NOT a good thing.

Simply put, Cathal Coughlan is one of Ireland 's finest living treasures. Talent like this deserves to be heard. Buy it???