Clare People Interactive

Lou McMahon Delicate Dancer Self released 8/10 . Organiser and curator of Lahinch’s White Horse Sessions, Lou McMahon, has taken a small break from bringing the best of Irish musical talents to the Clare masses to push her own musical creativity a little. And about time too. Delicate Dancer, the new EP from the Sixmilebridge [...]

To Win Just Once The Saw Doctors Universal 8/10 . Oh come on, everyone likes the Saw Doctors. Sure, they have plenty of obvious gaps in their rock and roll armory – but what they lack in charisma, style and any real rock and roll edginess they make up for with musicianship, heart the ability [...]

ODi Maslow’s Songbook 7/10 2Hoots Records . Maslow’s Songbook is the debut album from Wexford band ODi. To be honest, it’s not entirely clear where the singer-songwriter Claire Odlum stops and the band ODi starts, so for the time being at least lets refer to them as a “band” and a “them” – just for [...]

This is War 30 Seconds to Mars EMI 6/10 . I’m a little surprised that I liked this album. When actors decide to become musicians it triggers a whole series of alarms in my brain. Burned by the efforts of Keano Reeves and Russell Crowe, only the very few – Juliet Lewis and William Shatner [...]

Sound To Light Channel One 7/10 . . Things are really starting to get tasty. It really isn’t that long that a list of quality Irish electronic artists could have been compiled on the back of a matchbox, using a big-nibbed felt tip pen – and you’d probably still have space for a list of [...]

Martha Wainwright Sans Fusils, Ni Souliers, à Paris: the Piaf Record. Co-op 8/10 . There isn’t much that Martha Wainwright could do that I wouldn’t like – you might want to keep that in mind as you read this review. So, after the brother gave Judy Garland the old Wainwright treatment back in 2007, it [...]

Nirvana Live at Reading UMe/Geffen 9/10 . Probably the most bootlegged, swapped, illegally copied and downloaded live performance of all time – Nirvana live at Reading is a masterpiece of modern live music and possibly the pinnacle from which grunge would slowly recede. Yet strangely concert probably never shouldn’t have happened at all. At this [...]

Sharon Shannon Saints and Scoundrels Claddagh Records 9/10 . Say what you like about Sharon Shannon, but she is never ever boring. Saints and Scoundrels is the eight studio album released by the Ruan superstar, and by all accounts it’s one of her most expansive and exciting to date. For this album Shannon has pulled [...]

Enya The Very Best of Enya Warner 7/10 . The last time I review an Enya album – almost a year ago to the day as it happens – I received a three page letter of complaint all the way from France from a wounded fan with a bone to pick. This wasn’t your usual [...]

Mick Hanly Mick Hanly Collected Doghouse Songs Limited 7/10 . This month has already seen the release of a near avalanche of Irish Best Of records – each promising to be a stepping stone for the musician involved and not a swan song. In the case of Mick Hanly I’d tend to believe it. After [...]