DAVE COUSE         Hear "Satisfaction" mp3>>>

Dave Couse is a genius. There, I've said it. No more excuses. No more skirting around the edges. No more apologies, even. . With the release of Genes, his first solo album, people who thought rumours of his demise were fact have been given the kind of wake up call that only comes along once in a lifetime. . Goddamit, the bastard has done it again. Having been responsible for several of the greatest Irish albums of all time with A House, he has now gone and shown us all how it should be done when you go solo; warm, rich, witty, Genes is genuinely a thing of beauty. . Like a David Sedaris quip, a David Beckham cross or a Bill Hicks rant, there is something so innately right and fitting about virtually everything he does that it's hard to know whether we should worship him or burn him for being a witch. Because nobody normal has the right to be this damn good for so long. . Hyperbole? You betcha. But then Couse is the kind of bloke who has always provoked strong opinions, and not always in a positive way. . To many people, Couse doesn't fit the bill. He's too sarcastic. He's not afraid of big words. He looks like he doesn't try that hard and yet he still writes the kind of song that his contemporaries would cut their own ears off for. He hasn't been seen in too many compromising photocalls, trading in another little piece of his soul in return for a shot in the next day's paper. . All the things we wanted him to do, of course, because A House weren't the kind of band that fans wanted to keep to themselves (well, not always). For those of us who first fell head over heels for this vexatious, infuriating, blissful talent, A House became something to proselytise over. They were the future, everybody else was stuck in the present and damnit, it just wasn't fair.