• Lana Del Rey – Norman Fucking Rockwell

    September 22, 2019 - By 

    Norman Fucking Rockwell is a triumph in modern pop music. Lana Del Rey holds a mirror up to the fallacy that is the American Dream; the kind of idyllic, white picket fence visions of Slim Aaron and Norman Rockwell, after whom the album is named. Through the cynical narrative, narcotic-soaked sound and Del Rey’s acerbic character portraits, she warps these images and distorts the convoluted ideology that is the American Dream.  This grim satire glossed over with the subdued vocals and overall ethereal quality is an aesthetic Del Rey has been trying to achieve in her for several albums, most…

  • Album Premiere: Barry Wilson – Portrait

    September 18, 2019 - By 

    Never more than in the past few years has our national affinity for groove-laden jazz, funk & soul become something whose re-evaluation was overdue, what with Vulfpeck becoming one of Ireland’s adopted sons, and traditional offshoot, The Ollam. Over that same timeframe, multi-instrumentalist and composer Barry Wilson has been steadfastly crafting debut album, Portrait. Recorded across a multitude of studios in Ireland and Portugal, and featuring over 20 collaborators, it’s a focused, but eclectic collection of funk & neo-soul which feels emblematic of the spiritual ties between modern Ireland and soulful, intricately composed fusion. Portrait‘s initial recordings took place in Grawa Sound Studio in Porto, with…

  • Iggy Pop – Free

    September 15, 2019 - By 

    At the end of 2016’s Post Pop Depression, his finest work since the 1970s, Iggy Pop tells us he’s going to Paraguay – to where “there’s not so much fucking knowledge”, “people are still human beings”, and he can “heal” himself, sick of political fearmongering, internet commentators, and cheating executives. Some took the promise of his disappearance – if not his mythical Paraguay – seriously, wondering if this was the last we’d hear from the Stooges frontman, who has now been releasing records for a half-century. Pop seems to have wondered the same himself, telling the New Yorker recently that he’d felt burnt…

  • Jenny Hval – The Practice of Love

    September 14, 2019 - By 

    On the 13th of August, Jenny Hval shared an image of herself on twitter, with the accompanying caption; “a new song is out today – High Alice. This one is a labyrinth. Link on the internet. Suggested reading list: Clarice Lispector.”  Lispector was a surrealist, mystical Brazilian writer; broadly speaking, her work centres around women suspended in a moment of spiritual or creative crisis, often on the precipice of revelation. Lispector has a knack for warping the lens through which we view everyday objects – a flower, for example, or an insect – so that what is familiar is curdled…

  • Silverbacks and Somebody’s Child Set For The Great Escape

    September 18, 2019 - By 

    Two Irish acts feature in the First Fifty line-up announcement for the Great Escape. With more acts from our neck of the woods expected in the next line-up, Dublin indie-rock heroes Silverbacks and multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Somebody’s Child have made the first cut. The Great Escape returns to Brighton across 13-16th May 2020. Check out the full first line-up reveal here and revisit Silversbacks’ ‘Pink Tide’ below.

  • Watch: Malojian – DIRT

    September 18, 2019 - By 

    It’s a truth universally acknowledged dark, strange times always yield the best art. Which conveniently bring us to the new single from one of the country’s very best singer-songwriters, Stevie Scullion aka Malojian. Honing in on the towering shitehawkery of Johnson, Trump & co., media corruption and more, it’s a masterful, major-keyed riposte to the worldly forces that conspire to make fretting, sleepless wrecks of us all. Featuring animations by Michael Winchester, check out Colm Laverty’s accompanying video for the unexpected but very happily-received new single below.

  • Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer Set For Dublin Show

    September 10, 2019 - By 

    Green Day, Fall Out Boy and Weezer are set to team up for a show in Dublin next summer. Taking place as part of their global “Hella Mega” stadium tour, the bands will play RDS Arena on June 29th, 2020. Tickets cost €79.50 and go on sale on Friday, September 20 at 10am. Pricey enough but, if you’re a fan of all three bands, what a steal, eh?

  • The Story Of An Artist: In Memory Of Daniel Johnson

    September 13, 2019 - By 

    On Tuesday, 10th September, 2019, cult singer songwriter and outsider art iconoclast Daniel Johnston passed away at the age of 58 due to a heart attack at his home in Waller, Texas. The singer was best known for his 1983 album Hi, How Are You?, which he recorded alone, on a cassette recorder. The album has gained cult status since it’s release and has been cited by many important musicians (perhaps most notably Kurt Cobain) as being of major influence. In fact, Daniel Johnston has been a major influence on many different people. To some he was something of a…

  • Beyond Contrived, Bandwagonesque Bullshit: An Interview With Shrug Life

    September 10, 2019 - By 

    It’s long been the contention of this publication that if any songwriter could claim to be the voice of Dublin it’s Danny Carroll, lead singer and guitarist for Shrug Life. Since 2015’s The Grand Stretch EP, the indie trio have consistently floored us with earworm hooks and existential despair with an empathetic smirk. The songs encapsulate so much of what it means to be alive in Ireland at the moment; the ennui, uncertainty and the oddly humourous nature of it all. With their latest single, ‘Strangers’, having dropped, Will Murphy has a little chat with Mr. Carroll to see where…