For me, 2005 will be remembered mostly as the year when picnics went electric, Canadians made prog-rock palatable and Liverpool reclaimed their destiny as kings of Europe. Ah, the memories…
But this was also a vintage year for new Irish music, with a slew of great albums, singles and live performances over the last 12 months. Emmett Tinley’s Attic Faith is a sumptuous collection of bittersweet love songs, with the former Prayer Boat frontman’s angelic voice soaring above the rooftops. Turn’s eponymous third album displays the band’s most poptastic, radio-friendly sound to date – with ‘Stop’ being one of the finest Irish singles in recent years. The Walls, Damien Dempsey, Tadhg Cooke, Declan O’Rourke, Tasmania-born Dublin resident Matt Lunson and Dara showed that there’s still room for classic songwriting, while Delorentos proved that Ireland can do energetic post-rock as well as anybody else: 2006 should be their year.
The pick of the bunch from an Irish perspective, however, is BellX1’s sublime Flock, a record that’s bursting at the seams with great songs, innovative arrangements and ideas that are never short of interesting. Plus, it has killer tunes like the irresistible ‘Rocky Took A Lover’, the heartfelt ‘Bad Skin Day’ and the full-on disco fever of ‘Flame’, which will hopefully elevate them to international stardom when it’s released in January. They’ve also become the most exciting live band in the country, with Paul Noonan in particular growing into the role of front-man through a series of increasingly demented live-wire performances that should up his appearance rate on the brilliant eyebrowy.com website considerably.
In an international context, four of my favourite albums came from Canada in the shape of Arcade Fire, Stars, Chad Van Gaalen and Wolf Parade, who individually and collectively displayed a willingness to experiment with sound, while still making music that’s accessible and yet rewards repeated listening. These Canucks also know how to put on a brilliant live show, with Stars sending a full-to-bursting Sugar Club home with a gigantic smile on its face and Arcade Fire’s appearance at Electric Picnic becoming an event as much as a gig.
Elsewhere, Interpol looked truly amazed by the reception they received at Oxegen, The Magic Numbers made me smile like a loony, while The National quietly released the superb Alligator, easily one of the albums of the year. Meanwhile, Sigur Ros gave us the monumental, elegaic Takk.
In terms of live events, it’d be hard to top U2’s hometown return, when they played to 204,000 people in Croke Park over three triumphant performances. Truly it was a remarkable cultural phenomenon, Later in the summer, however, it was topped by Electric Picnic, the best music festival I’ve ever been to, including Glastonbury. Superb music (including great sets from The Flaming Lips and Nick Cave), amazing food (oh, the pies), a chilled-out vibe and, gasp, friendly security staff all added up to the best weekend of the year. And it’s on for three days in 2006…