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and so it’s Meteor Choice Music Prize time of year once again. The lucky 10 this year in the running for Irish Album of the Year are
And So I Watch You From Afar “Gangs” (Richter Collective)
Bell X1 “Bloodless Coup” (Belly Up Records)
Cashier No 9 “To The Death of Fun” (Bella Union)
Lisa Hannigan “Passenger” (Hoop)
The Japanese Popstars “Controlling Your Allegiance” (EMI)
Jape “Ocean of Frequency” (Music Is For Losers)
Patrick Kelleher & His Cold Dead Hands “Golden Syrup” (Osaka Records)
Pugwash “The Olympus Sounds” (EMI/1969 Records)
Tieranniesaur “Tieranniesaur” (Popical Island)
We Cut Corners “Today I Realised I Could Go Home Backwards” (Delphi)
(thanks to OTR from where I robbed the list and linkages!)
As always it’s a great indication of the rich variety of sound in irish music – it would be hard to listen to these 10 albums and come up with a conclusive “irish” sound – and is a great expression of the strength and quality of irish indie labels, with Popical Island, Osaka, Richter Collective, Music for Loosers and Delphi all illustrating the strength of the irish indie industry. There are some Choice stalwarts on their; with re-noms for Jape, Lisa Hannigan and Bellx1, but it’s great to see so many newbies and debut albums on the list. As always there are some that I agree with, some that surprise me and many more that could have been included, but I’d be happy with a winning result for most of the above. Of course I don’t have to make the choice, but the (un)lucky 11 who have to make the ultimate choice this year are
Brian Adams (Today FM)
John Barker (98FM)
Stuart Clark (Hot Press)
Siobhan Maguire (Sunday Times)
Naomi McArdle (Harmless Noise)
Lauren Murphy (The Irish Times)
Nadine O’Regan (RTE/Phantom FM/Sunday Business Post)
Colm O’Sullivan (Red FM)
Ed Power (Irish Independent/Irish Examiner/Metro Herald)
Rigsy (BBC 1 Northern Ireland)
Penny Rose-Hart (RTE Radio 1)
If you want to get your spoke in the best place for the debate is usually Jim Carroll’s On the Record blog – the choice post has only been up an hour and there’s already a heap of comments. Another good link is Nialler9′s blog of course- post here>, and if you want to get a listen to the albums @mrjamesfoley has made 7 of them into a Deezer playlist here>, and the others are on soundcloud – We Cut Corners, Patrick Kelleher and Tieranniesaur.
Tickets for the live award show on March 8th (at the Olympia) go on sale on Friday.
Jape's Choice winning album Ritual
Finally the Choice Music Prize comes good and crowns a winner that the vast majority of music fans have to agree on. Jape has been around for a few years now, and Richie Egan (from whom the Jape music flows) for a lot longer, but it is not longevity that was rewarded. Jape was a popular winner not only because Richie is a popular guy, an excellent musician, a poetic lyricist and possessed of an outstanding musical brainbox, but because Ritual is a great album. Not just a good album but a great one.
It was one of the finest shortlists this year with not a dud among them and with all 10 deserving of a win - and yes I include The Script, after initial surprise at the nod I have to hang up my snobby boots and concede they write great pop tunes and success should not disqualify them. This in itself is a remarkable statement for the state of Irish Music. Hard to say yet if the existence of the Choice for the past 3 years has had an effect on encouraging excellence or encouraging albums, or if the judges are more discerning or if the music is simply better. The judges have always been well drawn and have a tough tough job so I don’t think it’s that. The music has also always been there and any musician worth their salt wants to create an outstanding album so maybe it’s confidence, maybe it’s independence, or maybe it’s ther rest of us getting more aware of what’s out there.
Despite loving Lisa Hannigan‘s album and thinking highly of all the others I was rooting for both Jape and RSAG for the win. Jeremy “Rarely Seen Above Ground” Hickey is one of my favourite new acts of the last year. Seeing him in action on stage last summer- alone with his massive drum kit and projections of the rest of “the band” – blew my mind completely and the album that followed is on heavy rotation on the ipod. But however much I love RSAG live, and he stole the live choice show in vicar street last night, Jape was more deserving.
Ritual is a near perfect album. A neat 10 songs – all killer no filler as they say – it has not suffered the fate of 80% of new albums on my pod which is to have 4-6 songs selected and popped into a playlist and never the rest to be heard again. Can’t do that with Ritual, what would I leave out? the wit and storytelling of Phil Lynott, the cheeky perfection of Graveyard or I was a Man, the call to arms of Strike me Down, the delicate beauty of At the Heart of all of this Madness? Ok ok, you get the picture. It is at once both modern and a classic. I hope last night means everyone buys it in spades and the prize funds Riche for a whole heap of musical instruments and gadgetry and another wizard of an album this year. I won’t even get into the graciousness of his acceptance speech. He is the Man. oh- and he was outed by Miss Curtis as a twitter-er so you can follow the man on there.
