Album review: Ashnikko
Music Reviews Thu, Jan 28, 2021
SHE LOOKS like a blue haired version of She-Ra's Entrapta, armed with an equally colourful array of hip hop, garage, and pop beats - even a touch of emo - and an attitude that screams 'women power'.
Read more ...Album review: Midnight Sister
Music Reviews Thu, Jan 14, 2021
IN THE mind of Midnight Sister (aka artist, film-maker, and musician Juliana Giraffe, and composer Ari Balouzian), it is always the 1970s, or rather, it is in the current guise their imagination has adopted.
Read more ...Galway Advertiser's Best Albums of 2020
Music Reviews Mon, Dec 21, 2020
THIS HAS been a year without gigs, concerts, or festivals, and yet, it has still been a year which has given us some outstanding music. Here is my selection of the best albums of 2020.
Read more ...EP review: Shygirl
Music Reviews Thu, Dec 10, 2020
OSCAR WILDE noted that if you wanted someone to tell you the truth, let them wear a mask, the creation of an alter-ego allowing them a confidence they may otherwise not have.
Read more ...EP Review: Laura Groves
Music Reviews Thu, Nov 26, 2020
AS BLUE Roses, she recorded piano based songs which had the shifting tonal qualities and structures of classical music, and over which her voice danced beautifully.
Read more ...Album review: Marina Kaye
Music Reviews Thu, Nov 19, 2020
ANY HONEST look at the music created over this past decade reveals a basic truth - most of the best music is being made by women.
Read more ...Album review: Denise Chaila
Music Reviews Thu, Oct 22, 2020
AN ARTICULACY and a wisdom beyond her years, armed with groove filled beats and melodies that are as catchy as they are clever, Denise Chaila has truly arrived with Go Bravely.
Read more ...Album review: Future Islands
Music Reviews Thu, Oct 08, 2020
IT BEGINS with the call of birds in the wild and concludes with the sound of a cassette tape being switched off - a journey from the natural to the mechanical? More from the wilds to the security of a safe space.
Read more ...Album review: Pillow Queens
Music Reviews Thu, Sep 24, 2020
THE OPENING lines of opening track, 'Holy Show', present a picture of physical intimacy between two women, which is surprising for both its frankness, but also its tenderness.
Read more ...Album review: Suzanne Vega
Music Reviews Thu, Sep 17, 2020
WITH COVID-19 resulting in live shows becoming very small affairs and restricting artists to touring within their own national borders, the live album has - as it was during its 1970s heyday - become again one of the few ways to experience an artist in concert.
Read more ...Album review: The Flaming Lips
Music Reviews Thu, Sep 10, 2020
NO ATHEIST has ever written about death in a manner as grimly final as that found in the Bible: "For thou art dust, and unto dust shalt thou return".
Read more ...Album review: Fontaines D.C.
Music Reviews Thu, Jul 30, 2020
THE OPENING riff of the title track to Fontaines D.C.’s new album will have people of a certain age feel a need to cry, “Last night, she said, Oh, baby, I feel so down…”
Read more ...Album review: Courtney Marie Andrews
Music Reviews Thu, Jul 23, 2020
ON HER last album, May Your Kindness Remain, Courtney Marie Andrews gave voice to the values of the people from the US heartlands and rustbelt who did not vote for Trump.
Read more ...EP Review: Adeline
Music Reviews Thu, Jul 16, 2020
PARIS BORN, New York based; bassist in Cee-Lo Green’s band; former member of nu-disco outfit Escort; and solo soul/funk/R'n'B singer - Adeline is all these things.
Read more ...Album review: Dream Wife
Music Reviews Thu, Jul 02, 2020
GIVEN THE brilliance of the debut, and their prowess as a live band - witness that unforgettable gig in the Róisín Dubh in October 2018 - expectations were high for Dream Wife's second album.
Read more ...Album review: Badly Drawn Boy
Music Reviews Thu, May 21, 2020
THE ABILITY of the arts to speak to the moment we find ourselves in, regardless of the original circumstances of its creation, has been keenly felt during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read more ...Album review: PRIMO!
Music Reviews Thu, Apr 30, 2020
THERE IS something in the sound and style of contemporary antipodean indie-punk which feels as though it were music recorded sometime in '78 or '79, and left languishing in a vault until now.
Read more ...Album review: Ezra Furman
Music Reviews Thu, Apr 23, 2020
ART HAS the ability to resonate with, and speak meaningfully to, situations it was never conceived to address, and there are points on Ezra Furman's new album that feel as though is speaking about the Covid-19 pandemic.
Read more ...Album review: Laura Marling
Music Reviews Thu, Apr 16, 2020
ENERVATION AND melancholy have dominated many albums released so far in 2020 - an understandable reaction to last year with Brexit, the continued presence of Trump, and climate change, as well as an uncomfortable presaging of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Read more ...Album review: Låpsley
Music Reviews Thu, Mar 19, 2020
THE PERSONAL is political is a phrase/slogan/rallying call which has been around since the late 1960s, but is one that feels ever more pertinent and apt.
Read more ...