SONGS OF THE WEEK
The Frames – None But I
The Frames are hopping on the nostalgia train again with a personally-selected greatest hits album out on June 26th called Longitude (An Introduction to The Frames) and as part of the package, they will release re-recorded versions of Revelate and Fitzcarraldo along with this new track that sounds like a band who, in fairness, aren't ready to rest on the gravy train.
Old Hannah - West
The Sligo band with the folk, country and roots sound are sure to find favour with audiences if they keep writing old-timey melodic pop songs like this. Keep knocking those boots.
Gemma Hayes – Palomino
A reminder that Ms. Hayes released a fine solo album last year, Palomino is an easy highlight from her fifth album Bones + Longing. You can catch her live this summer in Dublin, Kilkenny, Killarney and with Paul Noonan's Printer Clips at Electric Picnic.
Tomorrows – The Circle
Three songs into Tomorrows' discography and it's clear the newly formed band are creating music that is more varied and wide-reaching that their previous bands Biggles Flys Again, The Chapters, Jethro Pickett and Woodheart. The Circle is a pop-smudged psychedelic pop gallop through the summer.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Elephant
On stage, Dundalk musician Shane Clarke sits with his guitar slung high and poised. What emanates from it and his voice are sweet tones that are surprising in their softness and delicate in their construction. More stories of "love, loss and fantasy" like this are most welcome. Clarke does a great cover of Dancin' In The Moonlight too.
ALBUM OF THE WEEK
Sinéad White - Finally
Doing things the old-fashioned way, Leixlip singer-songwriter Sinéad White has built up a name for herself through a multitude of independent festival appearances that have included kazoo playalongs and a collection of folk/pop songs. Those songs shine on her debut album with White's bright timbre paving its way through guitar and piano-lead songs embellished with bass and percussion. The overall feeling is of a very pleasant live recording so what it lacks in thematically-weaving sonics it makes up for in exuberant melodic directness.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
The Pacifics - Say You Love Me
Directed by Eoin McGowan
It used to take high-production values and big budgets to make the first-person perspective as seen in The Prodigy's Smack My Bitch Up video. But this is the age of the GoPro. For their new clip, the surf-garage-pop Dublin band The Pacifics do the same thing at a gig in Thomas House without the projectile vomiting and gender-bending.
