While I’ve been following the career of Tadhg Daly for a good while, in fact since his then band The Five Mike Road (still a brilliant name) visited Guernsey in 2013, but this is the first time in a while I’ve written about one of his releases, new single, Come Alive.

From the outset it is, musically at least, summery in tone which is excellently timed as we’ve just come out of the end of a particularly stormy winter and had some clear sunny days which has been, like the track, a refreshing antidote.

Musically there is a lot going on in the instrumentation in the current pop style, but it never becomes overbearing or gets in the way of the message Tadhg is delivering.

Lyrically though the song is something else.

Heartfelt and honest, it has an inescapable direct meaning (expressed explicitly in a post on Tadgh’s Facebook page) and is about some of his own experiences growing up and becoming the man he is now.

In that though there is something else where, it seems to me, any listener could find their own meaning, while the line ‘hold on while the world turns upside down’ feels remarkably prescient of the issues occurring around the globe right now.

Ultimately the music and the lyrics combine to create a song that builds, breaks and then finds its own resolution in a way often missing in modern pop, showing what a great singer-songwriter Tadhg has developed into, all without losing his authenticity.

Come Alive also then delivers a hugely positive message without being worthy or preachy making it the kind of real pop song the world needs in these trying and uncertain times.