Adele - Hello, It's Me
★★★
Back in 2011, Adele released 21, a depressing album about a failed relationship. It became the biggest British selling album of the millennium. Four years later, has she snapped out of that funk? Has she moved on with her life? Based on this, the answer is a resounding no. "They say time is supposed to heal you," she sings, over a gloomy piano backing. "But I ain't done much healing." Seriously, if she gets another hit album out of this poor sap, it'll be the most lucrative break-up since Heather Mills divorced Paul McCartney.
Daithi - Mary Keane's Introduction
★★★
Daithi O'Dronai's grandmother is 90 years old. She lives in a thatched cottage in Ballyvaughan and, like The Simpsons' Dr Hibbert, has a habit of bursting into laughter at oddly inappropriate moments. On the first track from his Tribes EP, the 25-year-old musician has spliced a recording of this adorable old lady reminiscing about love, courtship and the facts of life and set it to some chirpy electronic beats. The result is an occasionally jarring but, ultimately, moving listen.
Beach House - Elegy to the Void
★★★★
Earlier this month, Beach House released Thank Your Lucky Stars, their second album of new material in as many months. Elegy to the Void is the standout track. It's a melodic dirge, if that's not a contradiction of terms. Imagine My Bloody Valentine covering The Beatles' Sun King and you're almost there.
T.P.M. - All The Boys On The Dole
★★★
Brothers Charles and Andrew Hendy are a hip hop/ska duo from Co. Louth who list their influences as "dole, depression and anxiety". The Department of Social Welfare, the FÁS website and various officials all find themselves on the receiving end of some potshots here. But it's the geniuses behind the JobBridge scheme who'll really want to block their ears.
