Having spent a very enjoyable (if contentious) few weeks going through the '80's, '90's and '00s Irish bands that should have ended up with very, very big houses in the country and an adjoining salmon farm, we've decided that instead of doing proper work we'll start reflecting on the solo artists from this isle who were hailed as the new Dylan/Van The Man/Joni/Lolly but, alas, for myriad different reasons never achieved commercial lift off.
To take just one example, we'd have staked our very, very small apartment in Dublin on Sinéad Lohan making a major international breakthrough in the 1990's after Interscope won the bidding war to release her second No Mermaid album. It got huge amounts of airplay on both sides of the Atlantic, had one of its standouts, 'What Can Never Be', featured on Dawson's Creek and then sadly disappeared off into the ether. Listening to it today afresh, it remains a gorgeously crafted collection of songs.
We've picked fifteen worthy artists to kick us off knowing that you'll come right back at us with a load more. We're mixing and matching the decades this time, so hit us up!