Heartworm

Despite achieving gold status in Ireland soon after its release, this had been all but deleted from the collective memory until it was voted the seventh best Irish album of all time in a Hot Press poll in 2005, resulting in renewed interest in the band – and a spot on Oxegen 2006 for the recharged unit. The album hints at Lou Reed, Nick Cave, and Joy Division influences, but it’s much more than that. Fearghal McKee was a confrontational frontman, bringing a rare confessional honesty to his lyrics. In ‘We Don’t Need Nobody Else,’ he admits “I hit you for the first time today” and you can’t help wincing. Yet amidst the self-revelatory angst and anger, there were also champagne pop hooks to enchant, as on ‘Twinkle’ and the orgiastically brilliant ‘When We Were Young’. You can listen to Heartworm either as an entertaining life-challenging rock experience or for its searingly savage take on the human condition. A quintessentially Irish masterpiece.

No 6 in 2009, as voted for by over 200 Irish musicians. Up from No 7 in 2004.