SONGS OF THE WEEK
Comrade Hat – Old Amsterdam
Is this George Michael covering a psychedelic staple from the early '80s? No, it's Neil Burns from Derry with a drippy slice of hazed nostalgia in the form of a song, from a forthcoming mini-album (we call that an EP these days). Catch Neil play Hard Working Class Heroes in October.
Sorcha Richardson - Lost
There's something genuinely sweet about someone writing a song for a friend to help them get over their recent breakup. For Sorcha Richardson, her prescription is dancing it off and drinking in the bar that their other friend Penny works at. Lost got a few spins on Zane Lowe's
Beats One
show last week which is very fancy.
Fangclub - Dreamcatcher
The Dublin rock band who released impressive Nirvana-aping single
Bullet Head
earlier this year are back at it again with new EP
Coma Happy
on Universal Music Ireland on November 11th. Lead single
Dreamcatcher
is a sludgy slice of throwback grunge for the heads. The band are currently supporting Pretty Vicious on tour in the UK.
Fjokra - Evening Lights
A London-based artist, Fjokra has an eclectic taste that manifests itself in
Evening Lights,
a song that moves between pop, indie, synth pop and whatever you call what occurs at just over two minutes in. Space funk? Vaudeville synth? Or just an homage to a Muse solo? Either way, Fjokra has got some resolve.
RELEASE OF THE WEEK
The Divine Comedy - Foreverland
Neil Hannon continues to explore his idiosyncratic and individual songwriting style on his eleventh album under The Divine Comedy name. Elements of cabaret, chamber pop and classic songwriting are present throughout. Hannon's music walks the line between whimsy and wonderful and never spills over into the negative. It takes songwriting skill and neck to write songs about Catherine The Great (with “great hair and a powerful gait”), a vaudevillian duet with partner Cathy Davey
(Funny Peculiar
) Hannon is shorn of the smart alec persona that grated on previous albums but his humour is very much intact on a song title like
I Joined The Foreign Legion (To Forget)
and lyrics like “when you leave I become a moron / a beer-swilling time-killing moron” on
How Can You Leave Me On My Own
. The Divine Comedy isn't for everybody and that's no tragedy.
NEW ARTIST OF THE WEEK
Hard Working Class Heroes pick
Erica Cody
Twenty-year-old “Singer/Songwriter / Model / Ball Player / Princess (Twitter bios are succinct if nothing else) is one of a new generation of soulful R&B singers coming up in the Irish scene. As demonstrated in the Ruby Sessions video below, Cody has a real voice of substance. It's early days for songs yet with a series of demos available on Soundcloud but it's a voice to be encouraged. Catch her at The Chocolate Factory on October 6th at Hard Working Class Heroes.
Hard Working Class Heroes is a new music festival taking place from October 6th-8th in Dublin city with more than100 live acts playing in seven venues. See hwch.net for tickets.
VIDEO OF THE WEEK
Bell X1 - Out Of Love
Directed by Louise Gaffney
Louise Gaffney and Cian McKenna's collaborative music video leads with the idea that love is a game and most of us are losing. At least we are losing vibrantly.
