Album review: The Prettiots

Music Reviews Thu, Feb 04, 2016

IT COULD all be very twee, a light hearted look at love'n'life'n'boys by New York twentysomethings Kay Kasparhauser (vocals/ukulele), Lulu Prat (bass), and actor/musician Rachel Trachtenburg (drums), all very kooky, quirky, and indie.

Album reviews: Savages and Hinds

Music Reviews Thu, Jan 28, 2016

Savages - Adore Life (Matador)
SILENCE YOURSELF was a hell of an opening statement from Savages in 2013. It was so good their over indebtedness to Joy Division, Siouxsie Sioux, and Dead Kennedys proved no hinderance, but rather a welcome way in for audiences.

Album review: David Bowie - Blackstar

Music Reviews Thu, Jan 21, 2016

THE ALBUM arrived on my desk the same day the news broke that David Bowie died, and so it becomes the artist's epitaph, and it is hard not to hear the lyrics as a man taking stock of his time on earth.

The best albums, songs, and Galway concerts of 2015

Music Reviews Thu, Dec 17, 2015

Best albums of 2015
1. Ezra Furman - Perpetual Motion People (Bella Union)

Album review: Fleetwood Mac

Music Reviews Thu, Dec 10, 2015

HOW DO you follow an album like Rumours? You can't. Born of heartache, recrimination, love lost, and new love with your ex looking over your shoulder, it was a cathartic, emotionally raw, confessional, and all too real work.

Album review: Adele

Music Reviews Thu, Nov 26, 2015

ADELE DESCRIBED 21 as a "break-up album", but 25 as a "make-up album...making up with myself", but the fall-out from break-up still haunts many of these, often melancholy, songs of regret for what has happened, what has gone, and what can never return.

Album review: Ty Segall

Music Reviews Thu, Nov 19, 2015

ALTHOUGH HIS death is approaching its 40th anniversary, Marc Bolan's influence remains potent for musicians, not within the mainstream, which he dominated from 1971 to 1973, but within indie/alternative.

Album review: Jeffrey Lewis

Music Reviews Thu, Oct 29, 2015

JEFFREY LEWIS grew up on Manhattan's bohemian Lower East Side and this area of New York acts as a loose theme across the 11 songs on this album.

Album review: Beach House

Music Reviews Thu, Oct 29, 2015

IN DEFIANCE of the rule that a new album should only appear every two/three years, Beach House's Thank Your Lucky Stars emerges, with Zappa like prolificness, only three months after Depression Cherry.

Album review: Ork Records - the ground zero of indie rock

Music Reviews Thu, Oct 15, 2015

HOW TELEVISION ever were considered punk is bewildering, given they loved unleashing epic guitar solos, prided themselves on their technical prowess on the instrument, and thought nothing of stretching songs into 10 and 14 minute territory.

Album review: John Grant

Music Reviews Thu, Oct 01, 2015

IT BEGINS with St Paul's celebrated description of love from his First Letter to the Corinthians, Ch 13, two voices reading, both male, one in English, the other in Icelandic, before white noise drowns them out.

Album review: David Bowie

Music Reviews Mon, Sep 28, 2015

DAVID BOWIE has long had a habit of dating the start of his career to 1969 and his hit single 'Space Oddity', conveniently airbrushing the first five years of his career completely out of history.

Album review: Eternal Summers

Music Reviews Thu, Sep 10, 2015

ALMOST AS soon as the 1990s hit the '20 years ago' mark, a generation of young bands, many barely old enough to remember the decade, delved headlong into exploring the indie-rock sounds of that time, in the process reviving many of the styles of that era.

Album review: Yo La Tengo

Music Reviews Thu, Aug 13, 2015

THIS IS not the first Yo La Tengo covers album, that was 2006's Yo La Tengo Is Murdering The Classics, featuring their take on artists as diverse as Yes and The Stooges. Stuff Like That There is a different, though equally eccentric, beast.

Album review: Led Zeppelin

Music Reviews Thu, Aug 06, 2015

IN LATE 1975, Led Zeppelin found themselves with just 18 days to record the follow-up to Physical Graffiti. The Rolling Stones were due at Musicland Studios in Munich, meaning Zep, despite their status as 'biggest band in the world', had to record the album and get out - quick.

Album review: The Frames

Music Reviews Thu, Jul 30, 2015

MY OPINION of The Frames has always been skewered towards the negative because of their debut single, the hideously awful 'The Dancer'. The band's knack of repackaging indie and alternative rock for mainstream audiences made them appear edgy to many - but only if you ignored what was going on in indie and alternative rock. Forgive the Indie-snobbery but that did not sit well with me either.

Album review: Tame Impala

Music Reviews Thu, Jul 23, 2015

WITH SONG titles like 'Yes I'm Changing', 'Love Paranoia', and 'New Person, Same Old Mistakes', you know you are in for a break-up album, but the theme is appropriate as a change in the life of Kevin Parker - who is Tame Impala, no matter how many other people are on stage - reflects a change in his music.

Loner Deluxe releases new 'Digital Cassingle'

Music Reviews Wed, Jul 15, 2015

AN ATMOSPHERIC, often haunting mix of folk guitar, indie-rock, electronica, vocals, and samples from film, TV, and other sources characterise The Coast is Clear, the new three-track 'Digital Cassingle' from underground Galway musician Loner Deluxe.

Album review: Ezra Furman

Music Reviews Mon, Jul 06, 2015

EZRA FURMAN makes no apologies for his cross dressing and gender bending. He makes no apologies either for being a man of faith and a practicing Jew. In one go, he has just bullet riddled a host of stereotypes and expectations.

Album review: The Selecter

Music Reviews Thu, Jun 25, 2015

LEGENDARY 2-TONE artists, The Selecter, have always been my 2-Tone band of choice so I was eagerly anticipating this album. The title, Subculture, lends itself well to the original ethos of 2-Tone which encouraged the mixing of genres and youth cultures - mods, punks, and rude boys all skanking to the same punky reggae beat.

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