High Fives 2017 – Cormac O’Caoimh

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We first heard of Cormac O’Caoimh in April this year when he released his album “Shiny Silvery Things”; it’s a creation of rare beauty and you should really give it a listen. Allan sticks to his opinion that the closest you can get to categorising it is as a cross between Prefab Sprout and The Divine Comedy. which is a really good thing. Cormac agreed to share his five favourite albums of this year with us:

1.   Joe Chester – The Easter Vigil

Joe Chester should be huge. This is his 5th album. He has been nominated for both the Choice Music Prize and the Meteor Irish Music Awards and his first album, A Murder Of Crows, was included in the books 101 Irish Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, by Tony Clayton-Lea and Buried Treasure Vol. 2 by Dan Hegarty and recently in The Sunday Times list of the best Irish albums of all time. But, for me, this new one tops that and it has replaced Nick Drake as my go to evening listening.

2.   Malojian – Let Your Weirdness Carry You Home

This guy is a machine. He has released 4 albums since 2013. The last 3 came out in 2015, 2016 and 2017. The lazy bugger took 2014 off it seems. But they are all top quality indie pop loveliness.

3.   Marlene Enright – Placemats & Second Cuts

A fellow Corky and I have to have one Cork act here. But this would be in the list regardless. Love the songs and the warmth of the vocals. 21st century folk.

 

4.   Frankenstein Bolts – Aglow & Spark

The world needs more bands. Ireland in particular have singer-songwriters coming out of the woodwork (all great by the way…). And more than bands we need more dream pop bands… lovely melodies, mighty soundscapes. Atmosphere and production is all well and good but like all 5 on this list the songs are the key. And they stand out as incredibly strong songs.

 

5.   Laura Mulcahy – ‘Funeral, Home, Lizard…’

It is very hard to be original and unique. Everyone has influences and bands or acts that they love that consciously or unconsciously they can sound a bit like. It is even harder to be original and unique AND good!! But Laura is that. A weird and wonderful collection of 18 songs!!! Songs tackle subjects most songwriters avoid but despite all that it is delivered in a wonderfully catchy and melodic way. I normally put an album into one of two categories. I think all albums need to be either a late evening listening album or a driving album. This one can be both. In the car I can happily sing along and bop along just taking in the music. In the evening I can be more attentive to the stories and the lyrics.

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