Conor O’Brien on The Rationals, by The Rationals (1969)
“I’m a big fan of the self-titled debut – and sole – album by The Rationals. Loosely originating from the same scene as their fellow Michigan rockers MC5 and The Stooges, The Rationals possessed all of the associated raw, fuzzed-up energy, but they tempered it with a dreamier, more sensitive, harmony-laden sound rooted in 1960s R&B, psychedelia, experimental folk and the groovier side of instrumental library music.
“To put it simply, this album rocks, but it also floats, simmers, sizzles and dreams you into places you never thought you would go.
“I can’t remember exactly when I first heard the centrepiece song, Glowin’, but I remember how it made me feel: a transcendent, spine-tingling sensation followed by a gentle realisation that different levels of consciousness can be experienced simultaneously. Those 18 seconds of hissy rain and thunder before the instruments begin hold just as much sway in my soul as the ensuing song itself.
[ Conor O’Brien of Villagers: ‘We’re living through a bit of an unenlightened age’Opens in new window ]
“Strange and purposeful production choices abound. Half of the songs are followed by a small instrumental section of the album’s flute- and acoustic-guitar-heavy final track, Ha Ha, cut and pasted to service the friction of the different musical energies throughout. The tape audibly distorts under the sheer cacophony of the more raucous garage-rock moments, while the traditionalist R&B numbers are followed by abstract and impressionistic pieces such as the uncomfortable and swaying Deep Red, with its yearning, drunken vocals and descending chord patterns, or the languidly harmonic, yet soulful, Temptation ’Bout to Get Me. Genuinely, a lost gem.
Villagers play Cork Opera House on Tuesday, December 3rd, followed by Limerick, Killarney, Belfast, Dublin, Kilkenny and, on Thursday, December 12th, Galway. Passing a Message: The Lyrics and Artwork of Conor J O’Brien for the Music of Villagers is published by Faber
Gemma Hayes on The Bells of 12, by Sol Seppy (2006)
“I heard about Sol Seppy through Sparklehorse’s Mark Linkous, who she worked with on the albums Good Morning Spider and It’s a Wonderful Life. She then went off and recorded The Bells of 12, which is quite obscure but so beautiful, dreamy and otherworldly. I clung to it for about a year, because I’d never heard something so raw and delicate, imperfect and intimate.
“You can sense the sound of the room in her home, and at one point you can hear rain on the window while she’s playing the piano. Her vocals sound like she’s talking into your ear, almost as if she was thinking nobody was ever going to hear the songs. There is something very private about them – like diary entries, you feel like she’s letting you into her world, which is a bit disconnected and lonely.
“What also resonated for me was that you could tell she was struggling with the internal fragility of being human, having to deal with the outside world, how to marry both, and then singing her way through it. And then just the way the album sounds – she’s an accomplished cellist, but she chose to play the piano, which she plays quite naively, so you can tell she’s pushing away from structures and rules.
“In terms of the evolution of music, I think people are becoming a lot more unafraid to be raw and imperfect, and Sol Seppy happens to be somebody who just didn’t have the need to be liked or to succeed. She just made this little album of truth.”
Gemma Hayes’ latest album is Blind Faith; she plays in Galway on Friday, November 29th, and Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny, on Saturday, November 30th
Gavin Friday on Mirrors, by Peggy Lee (1975)
“The touchstone for Mirrors is Peggy Lee’s Is That All There Is?, which was written by Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, great songwriters who wrote the likes of Jailhouse Rock and Stand by Me. I was given a vinyl copy by my sadly long-gone friend Hal Willner, and immediately I was obsessed with it.
“The album cover alone has a sort of surreal, ghost-like image of Lee, which tells an awful lot about the feeling of the album. It was a complete flop, way too sophisticated for the time, and just didn’t fit into anything. It has this dreamlike feeling, almost as if some jazz people have taken psychedelics, and they’re sitting back and reminiscing, but there’s also great humour, pathos and emotion. It’s very cinematic but also very otherworldly. The lyrics are extraordinary, dark but also quite beautiful.
“After Is That All There Is? was a huge hit in America, it was always on the cards that Leiber and Stoller would write a whole album for Lee, and seemingly they had been working on songs very much with her in mind, about a sort of faded Hollywood songstress, this huge star, who was no longer as successful as she had once been.
“The album is really something special, and it sounds amazing. It’s not one to listen to when you’re getting ready to go out, but more for sitting down with a G&T and a cigarette.”
Gavin Friday’s latest album is Ecce Homo
[ The music of 2023: Our critics’ verdicts on the best albums and acts of the yearOpens in new window ]
Niamh Regan on Driving Home, by Cheryl Wheeler (1993)
“I was introduced to the music of Cheryl Wheeler, a Maryland singer-songwriter, on my first visit to the United States by my family there, and I was blown away. The album Driving Home doesn’t have too many tongue-in-cheek songs, which she is known for, but rather an abundance of lush, thoughtful, robust and tender tracks, such as When Fall Comes to New England and Bad Connection.
“As the album came out more than 30 years ago, some of the production might now be deemed a little dated in places, but her voice, melodies and guitar-playing still feel tasteful and reliable from start to finish. Wheeler paints the US, nature, love and life in such a dreamy yet realistic way that it’s hard not to get caught up in it. Highlights would have to be the smooth opener Driving Home, Act of Nature, Orbiting Jupiter and the unapologetically sentimental 75 Septembers.
“Like many albums I truly love, I keep returning to it, and with each listen I get something more that I can only describe as a little bit of magic. Wheeler is one of the most charming, inviting and inspiring songwriters I’ve ever come across, and because of this I’m sorry to have been so late to have heard her. There’s such a great brain and creative flow to Driving Home, and I love sharing it with people. She’s one of the artists I really hope to get to see perform one day.”
Niamh Regan has just released Acoustic Edit, featuring songs from her album Come as You Are
Steve Wall on The Psychedelic Furs, by The Psychedelic Furs (1980)
“The first time I heard The Psychedelic Furs was probably on the Dave Fanning rock show, a hugely important radio show in the pre-internet days. I think the song was Sister Europe, and I immediately turned up the radio.
“The Furs sound was different. Though they utilised the popular effects of the time – flanger, chorus and big gated snare drums – there was something that stood out, namely Richard Butler’s rough, sandpaper voice and Duncan Kilburn’s keening saxophone. Both weaved over the big, relentless drums and glassy guitars.
“It was 1980, and this was part of the new alternative soundtrack for those who dressed in black, read Camus, wore eyeliner and hung around with art students smoking Gauloises and Gitanes.
“Other tracks on the self-titled debut album – India, Pulse, Flowers, We Love You – still had elements of punk energy, with shades of Velvet Underground and Joy Division thrown in, while Sister Europe and Imitation of Christ showed a moodier and emotionally deeper side to the band.
“The Psychedelic Furs went on to enjoy huge success in the United States and Europe with subsequent albums, but I think they were possibly more influential on future artists than on the music industry itself. The album still sounds fab today – I can hear echoes of it in Fontaines DC, Wolf Alice, The Strokes and many more.”
The Stunning play the INEC Club in Killarney, Co Kerry, on Friday, December 13th; Cyprus Avenue, Cork, on Saturday, December 14th; and the Set Theatre, Kilkenny, on Friday, December 20th and Saturday, December 21st
Naimee Coleman on Dilate, by Ani DiFranco (1996)
“I’ve picked an album that I adore and have done since it came out, in 1996. I’d heard a lot of men – Bob Dylan and the like – singing profound and powerful songs. It’s not that they didn’t exist, but Ani DiFranco was the first woman I heard singing music like this. I thought it was so groundbreaking: brave, angry, vulnerable and beautiful at the same time.
“I was about 20 when I first heard it, and it really spoke to me. There isn’t a single word wasted, and because her lyrics are so good she’s able to express such beautiful, brutally honest stories, and to paint their pictures in such a clever way.
“When the album came out it was never off my CD player. Of course, there was a chunk of time – about 10 years – of not listening to it, but a few years ago I started listening to it again. It’s back in rotation, which is great. It’s actually a lovely album to take a step back from and then listen to again with, dare I say, older ears. Back in 1996, for me looking out at the world, there seemed to be less space for women who were making challenging music.
“I’d imagine that, for some people, certain songs could be uncomfortable to hear, but I love it when music grabs you by the shoulders and shakes you, and makes you think. So, yes, the album fits in a completely different way now as well, which is wonderful.”
Naimee Coleman’s most recent single, Water, is released through Cabot Cove Records, and is available on streaming platforms
