• Lykke Li – so sad so sexy

    Lykke Li knows how to write a pop song. We all know this – every nightclub still religiously plays the Magician remix of ‘I Follow Rivers’. What the Swedish songwriter really knows though, is a sad pop song. Her latest release, so sad so sexy is no different. This follow-up to 2014’s I Never Learn, which saw her swing more toward the acoustic side of things, dips instead into R&B and hip hop spheres and feels like a matured throwback to her debut album, Youth Novels, released a decade ago now. However, while it’s an evolved departure musically, lyrically, it’s…

  • LCD Soundsystem @ Malahide Castle, Dublin

    In spite of the nation’s frequent protestations about our weather, you couldn’t really ask for a better day for an outdoor gig. It’s the Tuesday after bank holiday Monday. The crowds are spent from the long weekend. Surveying the grounds of Malahide Castle, punters are littered around soaking in as much of this wonderful Midsummer glow as they can before they lose their minds and soul. Tonight LCD Soundsystem are making a return to Dublin for what will be, in frontman James Murphy’s words, “the second longest show [they’ve] ever played”. When Murphy and Co. walk out, the sun is…

  • Lykke Li @ Vicar Street, Dublin

    In April 2011 Lykke Li made an unlikely appearance at the old Tower Records for Record Store Day. With several hundred happy punters crammed in amongst the vinyl, she performed material from her (at the time) recently released second album and international breakthrough ‘Wounded Rhymes’, and absolutely blew the rest of the line up out of the water. It took all of three minutes to identify Li’s stand out live asset, one that an album and a significant step up in stage size has done little to change: honeyed soprano vocals applied to poetic emotional trauma. We were hooked. There’s an obvious hole to…

  • Choice Cuts: The Best Tracks of… July

    Death From Above 1979 – Trainwreck 1979 (Last Gang Records) The stonking great bass thump on Death From Above 1979‘s 2004 record You’re A Woman, I’m A Machine was an undeniable part of the duo’s past successes. Ten years later and we are finally getting another taste. Their sound hasn’t evolved drastically, but with the new track ‘Trainwreck 1979’, its obvious that the band is out to make a statement, a reaffirmation of what they can do with a bass and a roaring vocal hook. NehruvianDoom – OM (Lex Records) The second track to be unveiled from NehruvianDoom‘s debut album, ‘OM’ is a…

  • Lykke Li set for Dublin

    Lykke Li has announced today that she will be returning to Dublin this November for a show. The Swedish popstar released her third studio album, I Never Learn, last month to critical acclaim and will visit Dublin as part of a three date UK and Ireland tour. The concert will take place at Vicar Street on November 16, and tickets are priced at €40. These go on sale this Friday, June 20. Check out ‘ Never Learn’ from the new album below: