Car Seat Headrest: Faces from the Masquerade – Live album captures an exceedingly tight band with memorable tunesThe Seattle-based band’s third live album is an enjoyable documentFri Dec 15 2023 - 05:00
Bill Bailey: At 91 years old my dad is headed to London to make his fortuneComedian and Strictly Come Dancing champion Bill Bailey wasn’t a fan of Christmas – until he wasTue Dec 12 2023 - 10:00
The Killers: Rebel Diamonds – Proof that they have never bettered their early hitsHearing the Vegas rockers’ biggest songs pulled together illustrates their tendency to recycle motifs and melodiesFri Dec 08 2023 - 05:10
Laurita Blewitt’s Christmas: My uncles fill me up with whiskeyWhat do Tommy and Hector buy for Laurita Blewitt? And is she on cousin Joe’s Christmas card list?Fri Dec 08 2023 - 05:00
KhakiKid: ‘The 2000s in Ireland was a horrible place. You’d get called the P-word every single day’Distinctive Dublin hip hop artist KhakiKid is making serious waves. He talks about growing up with dual heritage, democratic technology and his ambitions to go all the way to the topTue Dec 05 2023 - 05:00
Ice Cube in Dublin: ‘Conor McGregor invited us to his restaurant, to hang out and have dinner. It’s going to be cool’ Rap pioneer, whose work with NWA helped earn him a place in the pantheon of greats, plays 3Arena on the High Rollers TourSat Dec 02 2023 - 05:30
The Corrs: Best Of – A nostalgia-trip reminder that the Dundalk siblings sure knew their way around a pop songTheir multimillion-selling greatest-hits compilation from 2001 is getting another run, with gold vinyl and bonus tracks, including three more Fleetwood Mac coversFri Dec 01 2023 - 05:00
CMAT at 3Olympia: A triumphant spectacle from one of Ireland’s best entertainers‘Pop music’s answer to Charlie Haughey’, CMAT’s self-confident stagecraft is a joy to beholdThu Nov 30 2023 - 11:33
Pink Pantheress: Heaven Knows – A TikTok talent in need of serious shapingThe Kent native’s debut album struggles to sustain itself over a meagre 34 minutesFri Nov 24 2023 - 05:05
Nealo: November Medicine – soulful, soul-baring Irish hip-hop at its finestNeal Keating’s second album is filled with ultrapersonal tales of life in suburban Dublin, but it never feels like a therapy session or cathartic vanity projectThu Nov 16 2023 - 06:00
Rachael Lavelle: I was on the Luas and I heard her voice. It was, like, ‘Okay, light-bulb moment: she’s perfect’When the singer wanted to tie her excellent debut album together, she went to the woman whose voice is used on Dublin’s tram systemTue Nov 14 2023 - 05:00
The Prongs: Theme from the Now Now Express – A Dublin soundtrack of sophisticated melancholy and dissatisfied vitriolVocalist John Fleming’s lyric sheet is littered with references to his hometown and the Irish emigrant experience in 1980s LondonFri Nov 10 2023 - 05:00
Rockstar proves that charm counts for a lot when you are Dolly PartonRockstar is a waggish nod to the mild controversy that engulfed her last yearFri Nov 10 2023 - 05:00
Johnny Marr: Spirit Power – A songsmith whose mastery of melody remains intactThe former Smiths guitarist’s light has never gone out, as this compilation of solo work highlightsFri Nov 03 2023 - 05:00
Joey Burns of Calexico: ‘I was really surprised people liked this music. We’ve never been a band to have radio singles and hits’On tour to celebrate the 20th anniversary of their breakthrough album Feast of Wire, the frontman of the Tucson band reflects on how far they’ve comeThu Nov 02 2023 - 05:00
Belters Only on selling out 3Arena: ‘We’re proving to kids growing up in our areas that you can do this’After topping the charts and festival bills, Robbie Griffiths and Conor Bissett plan to turn Belters Only into what they call a collective, including a record labelSun Oct 29 2023 - 06:00
DJ Shadow: Action Adventure – An undoubted sense of nostalgiaThis album is a reminder that DJ Shadow still has plenty to offerFri Oct 27 2023 - 05:00
The Streets in Dublin review: ‘Don’t put this on Instagram,’ Mike Skinner warns as he offers tequila shots to the throngThere may have been trepidation around the middle-aged dad-of-two’s ability to perform songs about the tribulations of youth, but he pulls it offTue Oct 24 2023 - 12:29
Blink-182: One More Time... – Exactly what it says on the tinThe ageing punk-pop trio play it safe but the joke is getting oldFri Oct 20 2023 - 06:00
Kojaque: ‘I’ve never felt more Irish than when I moved to London. I felt positively f**king Fenian’ Leaving his hometown has brought Kevin Smith’s musical lens into sharper focus on his new album, Phantom of the AftersSat Oct 14 2023 - 05:15
CMAT: Crazymad, For Me - Second album expands upon the Dubliner’s pop vision and confirms her as a starCiara Thompson nails it on this wiser, sadder and just as enthralling follow-up recordFri Oct 13 2023 - 06:00
Ed Sheeran: Autumn Variations – The news is not goodReview: This is not so much a companion piece to Subtract, from just four months ago, as an ugly stepsisterFri Sept 29 2023 - 09:57
Jape: Endless Thread – After six albums and two decades, the Dubliner has found a winning formulaRichie Egan delivers his most cohesive and well-rounded album to dateFri Sept 29 2023 - 05:05
Wilco: Cousin - a progressive album dappled with a sumptuous melancholic hueWilco’s 13th album reveals the full splendour of both Jeff Tweedy’s lyrics and the band’s exquisite musicianshipFri Sept 29 2023 - 05:00
Rebel Phoenix: Museum - An authentic Dublin voice with an impressively dexterous flowThe rapper’s latest album establishes him as one to watchFri Sept 15 2023 - 05:30
‘My mum would sign me to sleep every night, and they’d be these huge, intricate stories she painted with her hands’Dublin Fringe Festival 2023: In Resonance, Chloe Commins fuses aerial arts with her experience of growing up as a child of deaf adultsSun Sept 10 2023 - 05:45
Fizz: The Secret to Life – a burst of engaging pop from a supergroup with a differenceAn impressive debut that’s fun but never silly or excessive from Irish indie-pop musician Orla Gartland, her English counterpart Dodie and friendsFri Sept 08 2023 - 05:00
Malaprop’s hot topic: ‘We like people to leave wanting to generate a conversation’ Dublin Fringe Festival 2023: Hothouse, the theatre company’s new show, intertwines family drama with climate change – and throws in a few musical numbers for good measureWed Sept 06 2023 - 05:15
Soda Blonde: Dream Big - Dubliners return with a bolder, more forthright, more experimental affairThe quartet’s second album shakes off the shackles of their past guise, Little Green CarsFri Sept 01 2023 - 05:00
Future Islands at Collins Barracks: Even Samuel T Herring seems taken aback by the phones, pints and arms aloft in ecstasyIt’s the band’s biggest headline show in Ireland – and the frontman sells every song with chest-thumping, floor-slapping passionFri Aug 25 2023 - 10:28
Slowdive: Everything Is Alive – Hope, optimism and gorgeously pitched songsReading shoegazers are not ready for heritage-act statusFri Aug 25 2023 - 05:00
Margaret Glaspy: ‘I can only speak from my own experience of being on the road and getting s**t from men all the time’ The American singer’s new album includes some pointed humour, as well as a track whose single take was the only recording she could manage of itSat Aug 19 2023 - 05:15
The View: Exorcism of Youth – Rousing choruses, but this could be any noughties indie bandThe band’s longevity has arguably been at the expense of progressFri Aug 18 2023 - 05:00
Rhiannon Giddens: ‘I’m trying to add to what it means to be an American’ Previously renowned as a translator and reviver of folk songs, the North Carolina-born, Limerick-based musician is releasing her first album of completely original materialSat Aug 12 2023 - 05:00
Margaret Glaspy: Echo the Diamond – The best-kept secret in indie rock?The American artist’s third record sets her apart from her peers in a multitude of waysFri Aug 11 2023 - 05:00
Miles Kane: One Man Band – In serious need of a few fresh ideasSome tracks on the singer’s fifth album sound eerily close to Arctic Monkeys cast-offsFri Aug 04 2023 - 05:00
Cian Ducrot: Victory – Accomplished debut turns personal trauma into musical goldThe Cork native and former classical flute student is an assured storyteller with an innate understanding of melodyFri Aug 04 2023 - 05:00
Birdy had her first hit Skinny Love at 15. But at 27 she’s ready for new beginnings The singer-songwriter talks about pushing through insecurity, struggling with social media despite having 18m followers and heartbreakSun Jul 30 2023 - 08:27
Georgia: Euphoric – The singer’s third album gets better with every listenThis is a pop record with the right balance of depth and frivolityFri Jul 28 2023 - 05:00
Rita Ora: You & I – Romantic bliss and some baffling Fatboy SlimMultifaceted Londoner delivers functional breezy album but is capable of far betterFri Jul 21 2023 - 05:00
David Long and Shane O’Neill: And You Can’t Dream That – Indie stalwarts still have fire in their bellies Fine collection of songs from former Into Paradise and Blue in Heaven front men whose chemistry has remained intactFri Jul 21 2023 - 05:00
Greta van Fleet’s hard rock playbook: ‘Led Zeppelin is at the very top of our list’Bluesy hard rockers and Grammy-winners from Michigan have been accused of copying the greats, but they don’t mindSat Jul 15 2023 - 05:00
Mahalia: IRL - An R&B artist of talent and attitude who plays it too safeThe young Leicester musician’s commanding presence begins to flag around the album’s midpointFri Jul 14 2023 - 05:00
Martha Wainwright: ‘Hopefully I can write another Bloody Mother F***ing Arsehole, as that’ll pay the mortgage’After her forthcoming brace of Irish gigs, the singer plans to take a year off to digest all that has happened since her divorce, and to begin writing againThu Jul 13 2023 - 05:24
Anohni and the Johnsons: My Back Was a Bridge for You to Cross – Ambitious and importantThis is the singer’s first album in seven years and it sees her tread a more soulful path than beforeFri Jul 07 2023 - 05:30
Keeley: Floating Above Everything Else – An unusual album buoyed by its infusion of 1980s and 1990s jangle and fuzz-popAn obsession with the unsolved murder of German teenage backpacker Inga Maria Hauser in 1988 has permeated much of Keeley Moss’s workFri Jun 30 2023 - 04:45
Malachy Tuohy: I Cross This Universe – Riptide Movement frontman undone by sombre balladryWithout bandmates to bounce ideas off, this debut solo album, written during Covid lockdowns, comes across as insular and heavy-handedFri Jun 23 2023 - 05:20
Queens of the Stone Age: In Times New Roman – their most visceral album in yearsFollowing the Mark Ronson-produced Villains, the band's new album is something of a return to earlier fare, self-produced and dispensing with any collaboratorsFri Jun 16 2023 - 05:45
Janelle Monáe: ‘They’re literally trying to erase us by law, and we have to fight back’Her new album, which she calls her ‘blackest and queerest yet’, is a riotous party with a serious messageSun Jun 11 2023 - 05:20
Tom Grennan: ‘I’ve got a big heart. And I’ve got a sensitive one, too’The singer-songwriter says he feels he’s an arena artist and wants to be a global star – but he still finds time for a night of Guinness drinking with his Irish cousinsSat Jun 10 2023 - 05:00
