THE DUBLIN CITY ROUNDERS
Johnny's Last Ride ★★★
Beardfire Records
Earlier this year, Australian- born Rohan and Alex Healy were eliminated from the first round of The Voice UK. But what do Will.i.am and . . . whatever that Kaiser Chiefs guy is called, really know? On this evidence, not much. Johnny's Last Ride is a pitch perfect homage to – or parody of, your interpretation may vary – a very particular type of 1950s TV Western theme. (Think Johnny Cash doing Rawhide.) The brothers are performing all over Dublin this month in support of new album It Used To Be About the Money.
GRACE VANDERWAAL
I Don't Know My Name ★★
Columbia
On her debut single, 12-year- old America's Got Talent winner Vanderwaal says aloud what a most of us will only lament privately to ourselves the morning after our office Christmas parties. She can no longer recall her own name. (The b-side, presumably, is called But I've Got a Really Bad Feeling The Person Next to Me is Claire from Accounting.)
NAOISE ROO
Whore ★★★
Little L Records
Eighteen months after it's release, one of the standout tracks from Naoise Roo's Lilith album gets the video treatment, courtesy of director Bob Gallagher. Sacrilicious.
FIONA APPLE
Trump's Nuts Roasting on an Open Fire ★★★★
Finally, Fiona Apple's reworking of Nat King Cole's holiday favourite may just be the best thing I've heard this week. Not because, as a piece of political commentary, it is particularly sharp. ("Trump's nuts roasting on an open fire / As he keeps nipping at his foes" is her opening couplet.) Nor because its production values are all that high. (There is a dog barking audibly throughout.) But mainly because, at this special time of year, it contains a heartfelt message that all of us, whether young or old, black or white, Team Denis or Team Free Speech, can really get behind: "Merry Christmas, Donald Trump," she concludes, sweetly. "F*ck you!"
