So much has been written, spoken and, most importantly, blogged about Arctic Monkeys that it’s difficult to believe this is their debut album. The four piece’s incredible rise is, in the main, due to a Libertines-esque use of the Internet to spread their gospel without ever straying far from Sheffield.
These are strange times for Death Cab For Cutie. The success they’ve threatened for so long finally arrived in the wake of their fourth album Transatlanticism which, coupled with a guest appearance on The OC, saw their profile rocket. Major labels soon sat up and took notice with Atlantic eventually becoming the group’s new home.
Forget Oxegen or U2 at Croke Park – the biggest shows in town this summer are the All Ireland Championships. With the crowning of the provincial championships, the season is entering its most competitive stage.
“When you think of hip hop you think of something grimy, grungy, kind of like gritty concrete. And when you think of R&B you think of something soft, sensual…kind of like a rose.” So breathes Ashanti in her slushy and pointless introduction to Concrete Rose as she helpfully interprets the mystery behind the album’s title.
The Used furious mix of nu-metal and skate punk may not be the most original of cocktails but it’s the way they blend the ingredients (with just enough contradiction) that keeps them from sliding into mediocrity.
Having added such a forcefully new dimension to proceedings here in Ireland, it’s hard to believe that I Am Brazil is TRM’s first full-length album proper.
After 14 years together Silkworm have become intuitively complex and inventive. But despite building a loyal fanbase, they’ve yet to earn the recognition they deserve.
Bic Runga is cute. All glammed up in a champagne-coloured silk dress and fishnets for the final stop of her six-night Irish tour, she’s just a pair of pigtails away from being a delicate porcelain doll with a shy smile that goes some way towards masking an awkward stage presence.
It’s the understated self-assurance that first strikes you about The Belles. There’s a soothing quality to the way in which each track is allowed space to develop and time to breathe.
When 17-year-old Finn Andrews left New Zealand to come to London and make the big time, he hinted at the confidence and self-belief that simply pours out of The Runaway Found.
For years major labels have been scratching their heads asking themselves how they could shift serious units in unfashionable genres but now they’ve finally cracked it.
The sceptics might argue that for a group with such a troubled recent past to preach of increasing the peace is a touch hypocritical but, as that cover suggests, this has been something of a learning experience for all involved.
