JINX LENNON
Shop Thy Neighbour
4/5
"Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut" is Robert Ne Niro's advice in Goodfellas. Two dubious life lessons Dundalk wise guy Jinx Lennon gleefully ignores on this new track. The songwriter is more or less Ireland's answer to Mark E Smith. So his lyrics can sometimes be difficult to decrypt. Not in this case. Shop Thy Neighbour is a straightforward rant about social welfare fraud snitchers. Not conventional subject matter for a pop song, but he tackles it in a manner that is humorous, humane and just a little bit off-kilter. Business as usual, in other words.

YEARS AND YEARS
King
3/5
London electronica trio Years and Years were recently named the BBC's Sound of 2015. But the year I think this really speaks to is 1985. It's a Saturday afternoon. I'm driving a red Corvette along a Pacific coast highway. Wearing a white, sleeveless T-shirt and Aviator shades. En route to a Wham concert. This song is playing on the radio. Oh, and I'm being pursued by the police. On account of I'm five years old.

ELEVENS
The Fight
2/5
This new video from Dublin band Elevens debut album is a rousing anthem in favour of marriage equality. In the interest of balance, I should probably also mention an anti-marriage equality anthem. Unfortunately, no such track exists. But I can think of a couple of country singers, more than a few dancehall artists and at least one songwriting newspaper columnist who might do the honours. The ball is in their court. Hashtag, sexual orientation.

NATALIE PRASS
My Baby Don't Understand Me 
4/5
Nashville singer-songwriter Natalie Prass has a problem. Her baby doesn't understand her. Well, infants don't generally develop speech perception skills until 12-17 months. Except it turns out she's talking about her adult lover. And joking aside, this is a really fantastic song.