• Death Cab for Cutie – Thank You For Today

    September 15, 2018 - By 

    In the midst of a tumultuous period in the revered band’s development, Death Cab for Cutie have stripped back to basics for ninth album, their most accomplished of the past eight years, Thank you For Today. Thank you for Today is without a doubt Death Cab’s most retrospective album in over a decade, and is in many ways a celebration of the past. As the past four albums have been burdened by darker and more personal tones, Thank you for Today comes as a welcome relief in many ways but never risking flipancy. The buoyant and Beck-reminiscent single, ‘Gold Rush’…

  • Hozier – Nina Cried Power

    September 13, 2018 - By 

    There was a while where the world wasn’t sure if it had seen the last of Hozier. Quiet bar the odd tweet, after the thunderous success of his debut album in 2014, the Wicklow native retreated back to the studio, appearing only to tease his return or offer social commentary, aware of the gnawing fans clambering for more tracks as devastating and ethereal as that of his self-titled debut. With Nina Cried Power, his first release since that album, it feels as though Hozier is testing the waters of reaction and criticism to see what listeners want and expect from…

  • Spiritualized – And Nothing Hurt

    September 13, 2018 - By 

    Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt – Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five Spiritualized’s Jason Pierce should not be with us. After nearly 30 years in the music industry, the man has gone through so many trials and tribulations that it really is a surprise for him to be alive, nevermind kicking. Heroin addiction, suicidal despair and and cancer are tough to manage on their own, but encountering all three in such a short space is dumbfounding. Yet through all this, he’s still managed to produce some truly staggeringly good work. With Spaceman 3, you’ve got The Perfect Prescription and Playing With…

  • The Predator

    September 14, 2018 - By 

    The main action of The Predator, the unconvincing, Shane Black-helmed attempt to return the thirty year-old franchise to box office credibility, takes place on the night of October 31st. Which seems right: the film looks like it was kitted out by raiding the nearest discount Halloween supply shop. It’s one ugly motherfucker. Probably the main problem with The Predator series is the Predator himself: the galaxy’s most cold-blooded hunter is a goofy-looking alien. The dreads; the Boba Fett getup; the Bobblehead proportions; the seafish pig snout of a face. It’s an aesthetic blot emphasized by the Alien v. Predator experiments,…

  • Perspectives: Richard Forrest @ Glucksman Gallery

    September 13, 2018 - By 

    Thursday September 20th see artist Richard Forrest host a lunchtime discussion in Cork’s Glucksman Gallery from 1pm. Forrest is currently on show in the gallery’s latest exhibition Please Touch, and the talk will see him explore themes raised in that work regarding the experience of an exhibition beyond traditional sight only perception. As part of Please Touch Forrest, along with Rhona Byrne, Maud Cotter and Katie Watchorn, actively encourage their audience to get up close and personal with the works, employing the sense of touch when engaging with the work. Forrest’s talk is part of a series of discussion with the artists involved, with…

  • Big Red Machine – Big Red Machine

    September 12, 2018 - By 

    Cast your mind back to early 2009, and recall the exceptional Dark Was The Night charity album. In the middle of disc one, tucked neatly between Antony & Bryce Dessner’s ‘I Was Young When I Left Home’ and The Decemberists’ ‘Sleepless’ sat Justin Vernon and Aaron Dessner’s ‘Big Red Machine’, an exquisite clash of strings and hammered piano keys that was perhaps clouded out by the diversity and richness of the album. Fast forward nine years, and the collaboration has been revisited, or rather, finally finished. The result, Big Red Machine, has been in the works for the best part…

  • Elaine Malone – Land

    September 12, 2018 - By 

    On first listen, Elaine Malone’s debut EP Land seems to have arrived in timely fashion. Built upon a homespun foundation of spartan guitar picking and Malone’s darkly burnished vocals, the release seems to encapsulate the end of summer with its rain storms, dimming evenings and the creaking resurgence of central heating systems country wide. This autumnal cosiness proves to be something of a red herring though, acting as sumptuous camouflage for a release at least partially strewn with dark themes and blood chilling turns of phrase. On ‘Vonnegut’ Malone wastes little time grabbing the listener’s attention, intoning the arresting opening…

  • Incubus @ Ulster Hall, Belfast

    September 13, 2018 - By 

    Unlike many of their MTV2-approved peers whose day in the sun came to end many years ago, Incubus, it would seem, have aged surprisingly well. Having weathered getting older via a string of latter-era albums that aren’t (entirely) unlistenable, live, Brandon Boyd, Mike Einziger and co. still possess that which helped set them apart at the turn of the millennium. Doubling up as their long-awaited Belfast debut, tonight’s show at the iconic Ulster Hall is full testament to that. 27 years and eight albums in, the Californian band have long known what their fans have come to expect and deliver accordingly.…

  • A Mother Brings Her Son To Be Shot

    September 12, 2018 - By 

    “It smashes the head open like a melon.” 11 year-old Kevin Barry is in his kitchen, holding a hatchet up for the camera. He turns to his makeshift armoury. Here, he demonstrates, is how you throw a saw at someone running away. Kevin Barry is the youngest child in the O’Donnell family, who live in Derry’s Creggan estate, estranged from official ‘city of culture’ pride. His older brother, Philly, is currently exiled in Belfast, on orders of the neighbourhood’s Republican paramilitary enforcers. For his apparently drug-fuelled anti-social behaviour, Philly was sentenced by a secret vigilante panel and blasted in the back…

  • Crazy Rich Asians

    September 12, 2018 - By 

    Romantic comedies get a bad rep because the obstacle between the lovers is a joke. There’s a misunderstanding, a misreading of a text message, and then a sudden spiral that only a dramatic gesture in the final scene can fix. Hence the trope that almost all rom-com conflicts could be resolved with an honest conversation. But in Crazy Rich Asians, adapted from Kevin Kwan’s novel by Peter Chiarelli and Adele Lim’s script, the romance comes up against a legitimately formidable roadblock: the Asian mother-in-law, and the cultural baggage of a whole other world. The heart-first ethos of the genre is…