IS THERE a more treasured Irish songwriter than Christy Moore?
That’s a rhetorical question, of course, because in the past 50 years to so, between the jigs of Planxty, the reels of the Bothy Band, the numerous solo albums and countless gigs, Moore has carved out a place for him and his songs that is forever golden.
His new album, A Terrible Beauty, continues mining the seam with highly observational songs (some originals, some not) that hit the target squarely on the head. A particular highlight is Black and Amber (written by Dublin’s Brian Brannigan, a member of A Lazarus Soul), which is one of the most desperately forlorn songs about alcoholism you will likely hear.
There are further bouts of desperation in Maybe It Was All for This, the debut album by former Walking on Cars singer Pa Sheehy.
Following the sudden split of the County Kerry group in the summer of 2020, Sheehy retreated to his home in Dingle to work out why he wanted something different from the pop/rock sheen of his former band.
The album is the result of such creative ruminations, and with songs as well-structured as The Night the School Burnt Down, Towards the Water, and Song to Silence (Last Ferry to Doonbeg) it’s as fine a collection of folk-imbued pop as you’ll hear this year.
Pa Sheehy released his debut solo album last monthRicht up there with Sheehy’s album is Wicklow songwriter Fionn Regan and O Avalanche, except there is more buoyancy here, with most of the songs having been written on the Spanish island of Majorca.
It seems to state the obvious, but because of this, there is a lightness of creative touch. There is also what you might describe as an environmental shape to the material – it’s as if you can sense the sun streaming into the rooms where the songs were written.
Indeed, with track titles such as Islands, Swimming the Lakes, Teix Mountains, and Deiá Song/Llucalcari, you are almost there with Regan, in the sun, by the water, walking a trail.
Equally atmospheric, albeit in a more grounded manner, is Repeat Rewind, the new collection of songs by Galway’s Mary Coughlan. Similar to Christy Moore, Coughlan is something of a national treasure, and that isn’t because she has been around long enough to celebrate 40 years as a recording artist but rather because she has stuck to her creative guns while undergoing a sequence of personal dilemmas.
This notwithstanding, the songs here are rooted in real life, but perhaps concurrent with Coughlan’s tangible sense of contentment, they are more contemplative than conflicted. And, lest we forget, beautifully wrapped in a voice that has few if no equals.
Mary Coughlan is back with new musicAnother Irish music act that has been around for more years than they possibly care to remember (or admit!) is the 4 of Us. The Newry band (in effect, two brothers, Brendan and Declan Murphy) has been a presence on the Irish music scene since the early 1990s, but more recently, the brothers have evocatively mined their personal backgrounds for material rather than writing tailor-made pop hits for the charts.
Crescent Nights is, therefore, a reflective and predominantly acoustic batch of songs, with the likes of Boneshaker, St. Gabriel’s Drive, Night Out of Town, and Murphy’s Place presented with style and nerve.
Waterford’s Under Starling represent the new-ish Irish kids on the block, while their recently released debut album, Murmurations, is a perfect counterpoint to anyone who says they (whoever ‘they’ are) don’t release music like they used to.
The bottom line here is that the songs are superb examples of contemporary rock/pop. Reference points? Think The National crossed with Interpol with music infused by an intuitive sense of atmosphere.
Mostly, it’s excellent, but there are missteps along the way, namely the title song, a crackling spoken word piece that buckles under the weight of pretension and artistic overstretching.
Yes, it’s a lesson in experimentation (to which we say fair enough), but for this listener, it’s set adrift amidst anchored songs like Hawthorn Tree, Selkie, Rat King, and The Hunger.