3 Minute World

Pierce Turner’s "3 Minute World" is an orchestral pop masterpiece, plain and simple. We may all argue over what albums deserve to be on a list like this, but no one will argue that Turner is one of the most-original voices on this list or any other, for that matter.

A record obsessed with time, Turner vacillates with measuring it and reflecting on how it slips through the fingers like sand. Time is everywhere; the ticking of clock parts provides percussion and the chimes providing cymbal crashes. A dreamy merry-go-round melody induces drowsiness on “You Won’t Mind” as Turner lazily mourns the fact that he has missed his train.
 
“I’m a busy man / I’m up to my eyes but I remain calm/have you seen the time / honest to goodness how the days fly by / I have to find a pair of socks I could live with plus a t-shirt that’s cleaner than the one I wore to bed,” he sings on “Busy Man,” as whimsical strings and chimes float in the background. It’s surreal and cinematic stuff, like a musical concoction made by Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
 
“It's odd because I thought it had gone unnoticed,” Turner says when told that his CD made our best of the decade list.  “But then, Hot Press did a survey for the best 100 Irish albums of all time and '3 minute World' was in there.  Just this year someone suggested that I should perform the whole album from top to tail, not a bad idea for a concept album. So I did, and found that it had all the correct ups and downs of a proper set.”

While the theme unifies "3 Minute World," the musical interludes seem pieced together by a mad toy man cobbling scraps from Santa’s Workshop. Classical 40-second interludes clear the palette between balladry, while synthesizer effects tango with a string quartet. A jazzy, flamenco acoustic guitar riff strums lazily on “Beyond the Blue” while Beach Boy harmonies waft through the breezy arrangement. “We’re all high tech but what the heck?” Turner asks. Speaking of The Beach Boys, "3 Minute World" is the Irish cousin to "Pet Sounds" in its inventiveness.

Michael Farragher, irishcentral.com