Music Archives – Page 4 of 11

Sussed: Albums of 2017

February 22, 2017

Despite being a year that most people would prefer to forget, when it comes to music releases, 2016 was lit. Kanye’s Life of Pablo, Queen B’s Lemonade, Bowie’s Blackstar, Frank Ocean’s Blonde, The Rolling Stones’

Sussed: Afrobeat

February 8, 2017

The birth of Afrobeat happened almost a decade after West African countries such as Nigeria and Ghana gained their independence from British rule in the 60’s. During a time where freedom and hope for future

The power of pop as protest

February 8, 2017

The protest song is exciting, irreverent, and powerful, putting into words our frustration with inequalities of all description. For as long as pop has existed, there has been a subsection of righteous, rage-fuelled songwriters who

What now after What.CD?

November 30, 2016

Last week saw the closure of the infamous music and file sharing site What.CD making them part of the club of fallen piracy giants like Napster, Kickass Torrents and the original Pirate Bay. In a

“The End” for Black Sabbath

November 30, 2016

Black Sabbath. The words are like a hunting horn for any seasoned heavy metal fan. A 50-year-career marked by legendary music, solid friendship and innumerable vices is finally drawing to a close. After spending almost half

Sussed: Christmas club guide

November 30, 2016

As another festive season rolls around, and people dust off their decorations, excitement mounts for two very different groups of people. While children everywhere refine and redraft their letters to Santa, Dublin’s revellers and clubbers are

Do you know Fangclub?

November 16, 2016

Appropriately for a band fronted by a man called Steven King, I catch up with Fangclub at Universal Ireland head offices just before Halloween. They’re on a short break between two legs of their UK

Review: Metropolis 2016

November 16, 2016

There it sits, under a crescent moon, Leinster blue spotlights glinting off each individual mirror – the world’s largest disco ball, in the courtyard of the RDS – a signifier of the weekend to come.

Scenery – Japan’s greatest contribution to Jazz

November 16, 2016

Grandiose statements require grandiose substantiation, and as such it’s a rare day that I would take such a concept to task. Though it is of little debate as to whether Mr. Ryo Fukui’s 1976 debut

Review: Sleaford Mods at Vicar Street

November 5, 2016

Close to 1,000 spent their Thursday night at Vicar Street being hypnotised by a 45 year old ex-social welfare adviser repeatedly slapping his own head and unloading half a century of inequality, class division and

Sussed: Metropolis 2016

November 3, 2016

Ireland’s biggest winter festival returns to the RDS after a stellar debut outing. Chic, Hot Chip and Le Galaxie were the highlights of a serious couple of days’ dancing in Donnybrook last year – but

Review: American Football – American Football

October 26, 2016

Opening with a track entitled ‘Where Are We Now’ seems pretty apt considering that this is the first LP American Football has released this century. Though their sophomore offering is still self-titled, the album is

Did Bob Dylan deserve the Nobel Prize for Literature?

October 26, 2016

Bob Dylan has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. “Wait, literature?” I hear you say. That’s right. The Swedish Academy has awarded him “for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition.”

Review: Death Grips at the Academy

October 17, 2016

It’s a long flight of stairs up to the Academy’s main room and on this night, getting close to Samhain, it felt like a liminal space, a passageway between the relative sanity of the street

On Raglans’ road

October 12, 2016

How Mick Flannery rages against the capitalist ideal

October 12, 2016

“I’m just one person, I have to look after my own life. I can’t save this stuff… so I’m gonna have a pint,” Mick Flannery tells me over the hubbub in the Dame Tavern, reaching

Review: A Seat at the Table by Solange

October 12, 2016

Eight years on from the groovy, upbeat album Sol-Angel and the Hadley St. Dreams, Solange Knowles has emerged with a clean, crystal cut album full of emotion and thought. Solange Knowles has invited us to

All roads lead to ROMES

September 28, 2016

ROMES are a half Irish, half Canadian alternative pop band made up of childhood friends Jacob Bitove on vocals, his brother Nick Bitove on drums, Andrew Keyes on Bass and James Tebbit on guitar. Earlier this

The Suss’ Summer: Longitude

September 28, 2016

As crowds of people swarmed into Marlay Park, it was clear that Longitude was going to be a weekend to remember. The atmosphere was full of excitement for a fantastic lineup. Laura Mulva, Daughter and

Review: No Man’s Sky: Music for an Infinite Universe by 65daysofstatic

August 17, 2016

It might take 5 billion years to fully explore the vast, procedurally generated universe of No Man’s Sky – but it only takes 65daysofstatic to soundtrack it. Few bands could take up the task of

REVIEW: The Lumineers at the Olympia

April 21, 2016

The Lumineers are currently on tour and this week they took to the stage of the Olympia Theatre in Dublin to perform in front of hundreds of their loyal Irish fans. For a group of

REVIEW: Muse at the 3Arena

April 20, 2016

Teignmouth titans Muse are no stranger to Irish shores and last week saw their first show here since 2012 – when they toured their sixth album, The 2nd Law. The trio are showing off

Festival line-ups in flying form

April 20, 2016

A long summer lies ahead, however, not all of us have the luxury of escaping on a J1 for three months or going InterRailing around Europe with friends for a couple of weeks. Whether it

King Kong Club: helping to climb the tower

April 20, 2016

We’re upstairs in Whelan’s – it’s the end of the gig, and the crowd is huddled together before the stage, clapping enthusiastically and screaming at the top of their lungs. Only it is not a

Review: Mind of Mine by Zayn Malik

April 6, 2016

Zayn Malik’s debut album has been highly anticipated since his departure from One Direction just over a year ago. In a boyband, his role was clear: brooding, mysterious, soulful. As a solo artist, he seems