The community of musicians can be divided into two categories -- those who want to create and those who do so because they have no other choice. As he proves on his dauntingly mature, intriguingly nuanced Lost Highway debut, The End of History, singer-songwriter Fionn Regan clearly falls into the decidedly rarefied latter category.

The soft-spoken 26-year-old coaxes an intoxicating array of emotion and detail into his fragile-yet-gripping songs -- a body of work that's already elicited comparisons to forebears as varied as Nick Drake for his guitar playing and to Woody Guthrie for his wordplay. It's easy to understand why, given the filigreed acoustic finger-picking and raw lyrical stance of songs like the cinematic "Be Good or Be Gone" the menacing "Snowy Atlas Mountains" or the allegorical "Hey Rabbit" with its social conscience, songs that paint intensely vivid pictures -- so vivid, in fact, that Regan hesitates to elaborate as to their deeper origins.

He keeps the frills to a minimum on the dozen-song collection, getting his point across with little more than voice, acoustic guitar and piano (most of The End of History's songs were captured in one or two takes) he never gives the idea that he's practicing minimalism for its own sake. That comes into particularly sharp focus when one hones in on his guitar playing, a beguiling brew of rhythmically sturdy finger-picking (the backbone of "Hunters Map") and (as on the twinkling "Abacus"), lissome passages in which every note resonates with crystalline clarity.

Imagine a whimsical, sunnier Nick Drake. Or perhaps a young Donovan for the 21st century. With his lithe, limber, and conversational tenor complemented by the subtle virtuosity of his acoustic guitar, the Dublin troubadour sustains an engaging intimacy even when his material seems on the slight side (more precocious than profound). Though his childlike innocence extends to the hand-lettered lyrics in the CD booklet, he invokes the literary influence of Saul Bellow and Paul Auster on "Put a Penny in the Slot." Much of this self-produced release finds Regan playing solo (often with double-tracked harmonies), with the spare employment of strings, piano, and percussion making their use all the more striking. An unlisted bonus cut seems to channel the range of Jeff Buckley. --Don McLeese

From the delicate and deceptively intricate "Be Good or Be Gone" that inaugurates Fionn Regan's debut album, The End of History, it's apparent that his is a talent not to be ignored. Recalling any number of folkish predecessors--Bob Dylan, Jose Gonzalez, Nick Drake--Regan's finger-picked guitar work and warm, Damien Rice-like vocals flow through this entire project like meandering, golden streams. Mixing winsome melodies with emotive chords and quasi-poetic lyricism, Regan straddles the classic folk sound of the '60s and the contemporary neo-folk scene with bristling aplomb. Unlike many so called "new folk" heroes, though, Regan keeps his approach simple, varying his songs not with electronic beats or acidic guitar squalls but light embellishments such as brooding strings (see the dark, Gonzalez-esque "Hunter's Map") and subtle backing vocals (see "Black Water Child"). Though skeletal, Regan's songs create a dreamy, nostalgic ambience that successfully eschew cliché. Intimate and contemporary, universal and classic, The End of History is a triumphant and highly accessible first outing. --Paul Sullivan