Distance is the Soul of Beauty’ is the new album by Anglo-Irish musician Michael J. Sheehy and his first in over a decade. These intimate, reflective songs were recorded at home during late night hours under the COVID-19 enforced Lockdown and sung in hushed tones while Sheehy’s wife and child were asleep. Lyrically inspired by the writings of French philosopher Simone Weil and English medieval mystic Julian of Norwich as well as Sheehy’s battle to maintain sobriety in a world gone mad, these songs are personal yet leave plenty of space for the listener to project their own feelings and interpretations on to. Sheehy cites the Velvet Underground’s eponymous third album, Suicide’s gentler moments and his lifelong love of Elvis Presley as musical touchstones. Arguably, this is his most accomplished and rewarding work to date.
