The Basement专辑介绍：by Tim SendraThe Basement hail from Ireland but their real home lies in the same boozy country-rock territory as the Thrills, Marah, and the Kooks, to name a few recent contenders. It's a place where beer is spilled as lads cut loose and lick their wounds, where tattered romance flows like cheap wine and bands like the Byrds, the Replacements, and the Band prop up the bar in the Hall of Fame. Their debut, Illicit Hugs and Playground Thugs, is a loose-limbed romp that makes no great claim on originality but has enough heart and soul, and big fat hooks to make it damn near essential for anyone who likes tears in their beer and a stirring song on the jukebox. Singer John Mullin has a magically terrible voice that fits the music and the ramshackle, melancholy mood perfectly; he's wracked with emotion on the heart-tugging ballads, woozy and lopsided on the staggering rockers. His lyrics won't win prizes, but they aren't emba...