A&R Department: Really Good Time, Greywind, Hawk and more

Dublin alt. rock duo TV People up the ante with ‘Fade’, a “coming of age song for when you haven’t quite come of age yet and you’re still lost.”

Keys-driven, melancholic and insanely catchy, it’s got a Tindersticks meet The Walker Brothers feel and has been released by Galway independent Blowtorch Records who also bring us the new Virgins single, ‘Softer’.

The latest taster from the Belfast quintet’s debut Nothing Hurt And Everything Was Beautiful album, which drops on April 11, it’s another slice of sonic cathedral-building shoegaze, redolent of My Bloody Valentine in their poppier moments…

Harmon Road open their account with the breathy alt. folk of ‘Narrow Street’, which was recorded under the influence of The Staves, early Fleetwood Mac and Crosby, Stills and Nash but apparently no Young. Having released four solo albums on Virgin Records, main man Marc O’Reilly has teamed up with siblings Pierre and Melanie to produce something really heart-warming…

Fresh from a stunning hometown headliner in the Dublin Academy, Saibh Skelly brings us the heartfelt pop of ‘Lost And Found’, her latest for Rubyworks who also look after Hozier here.

A former busker who took off during Covid on social media, she’s justifiably been compared to the likes of Billie Eilish and Taylor Swift and with songs of this calibre could soon be slugging it out with them at the top of the charts…

Saibh Skelly

From Cork with the accents to prove it are Single Men In Their Thirties whose The Sunday Scaries EP sounds like Yard Act transported to the banks of the Lee – well, sort of!

‘Don’t Be Asking’ underlines the extremely dextrous nature of JJ Lee and Cónal Murphy’s wordplay, which also nods at classic Rebel City outfits like Five Go Down To The Sea and The Sultans Of Ping FC…

Greywind, who comprise of sibling Killarney duo Steph and Paul O’Sullivan, have just released their five-track Antidote EP.

It includes new single ‘You’re My Medicine’, a Jimmy Eats World-esque stomper which has the Kerrang! crew in a right old tizzy.

Another outfit who’ve blown up on TikTok, they’re currently running round the States with emo popsters Boys Of Fall and Good Terms…

If it’s a pop-punk banger you’re after look no further than ‘Take It From Me’, the new single from Dublin trio HAVVK, which is a cartoonish response to the all-too-common practice of men taking credit for female ingenuity.

“While it’s obviously serious,” explains lead singer Julie Hawk, “the song is also laughing in the face of these kind of eye-rollable scenes, which we should surely put behind us by now. I imagine it being sung by a sassy girl band of seven-year-olds performing it in the mirror and dressing up in their older sisters’ clothes.”

They’ll be cranking it out live on March 22 in The Workman’s…

Meanwhile, lovers of ’80-flavoured synthpop – think Depeche Mode with a dash of Tears For Fears – will lap up ‘Bad Kitty’, the latest from The Butterfly Graveyard who’ve also professed to being massive fans of The Blue Nile.

That explains the song’s deliciously wistful quality and melodiousness – a great word which we should use more often…

Also trading in earworms is Siobhán Franks, a young Dubliner whose latest ‘Baker’s Corner’ release, her fifth, is a tender and beautifully observed love song.

Worthy of much radio support, it reminds us of Lily Allen and Kate Nash in their less frenetic moments and has us eager to hear more…

Having introduced the capital to the likes of R.O.B, Desires, BG Boi, Vividoah, X.O Zenn, and Lil Foreigner with his WLIN party nights, Braydee dazzles with his own The Prologue seven-tracker, which includes the banging ‘Emo Girl’ and ‘3AM In Dublin’, a super-sexy R&B groover that – massive compliment alert! – has echoes of Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’.

Definitely a lover rather than a fighter, the entrepreneurial singer has been variously compared to Lil Wayne, Migos and Ken Carson, has talent to burn but might consider switching off the Autotune occasionally…

Making their A&R Dept. bow are Dublin scuzz rockers Really Good Time whose Beware, The Wish EP lands on March 28.
Born “in a moment of divine inspiration” after singer Diol had ingested too much, er, candy floss, lead track ‘Return To The Crucible’ sounds a bit like U2 if they’d been part of the Seattle grunge scene.

The accompanying ‘90s-themed beefcake video, which finds the lads getting into a right old lather, adds to the dirty fun.