David Long & Shane O’Neill: Age of Finding Stars – An absolute joy

David Long and Shane O'Neill fronted two of the greatest Irish groups of all time, Into Paradise and Blue in Heaven, respectively. Both hail from Churchtown, a residential suburb in Dublin 14 nestled between Dundrum and Rathfarnham and home of the country's first-ever drive-through McDonald's.

In 2021 the duo put together an album entitled Moll & Zeis remotely by email. Not being a pair to mess about, Long and O’Neill have already followed it up with a second album, Age of Finding Stars, which is out now on Bandcamp ahead of a physical release next week.

Comprising of eight songs with curious titles made up of words spliced together in lower case letters, such as greeneyessing and entertheheartandisgone, Age of Finding Stars shows that their skill and craft has improved and matured over the years like fine wine. Nightpoetsofbeijing is one of the best tracks I’ve heard this year, where dreamy blasts of noise merge with birdsong and crows cawing. The album is centred around the third song, stickyblackheart. “Releasing an album these days is like dropping a rose petal down the Grand Canyon and waiting for the splash,” the duo declare in a short statement. “This album is about what it’s like to say goodbye to everything you love. This album is a fearless, unapologetic look at the entire history of the world.”

Like all great music and art, Long and O’Neill forge empowering and defiant songs out of challenging subjects. Age of Finding Stars is an absolute joy.