Horsedrawn Wishes
(14/100 Greatest Irish Albums)

How Rollerskate Skinny faded into obscurity while lesser contemporaries like Lush and Love & Rockets sold truck-loads of records is one of rock ‘n’ roll’s most perverse mysteries.
Named in honour of a turn-of-phrase in J.D. Salinger’s Catcher In The Rye, the Dubliners went in to make their sophomore album a man short following Jimi “Brother Of Kevin” Shields’ defection to Lotus Crown.
It didn’t make any difference to their dense wall of sound though, with songs like ‘Man Under Glass’ and ‘Shimmer Son Like A Star’ a swirling maelstrom of treated guitars and sweet, sweet melodies.
Horsedrawn Wishes’ finest moment is supplied by ‘Bell Jars Away’, a tender love song softened by sampled flute and punctuated with triangle chimes. “I have thrown myself into your warm hold where you bless away the shivering”, sings Ken Griffin as hearts break, polar icecaps melt and bitter enemies give each other a cuddle. It was that sort of record.