Top 10 Irish Albums of 2023
It’s been another incredible year for Irish music. Lankum have rightly topped a load of year-end lists with False Lankum. They get my top spot for Irish album of the year. Lisa O’Neill and John Francis Flynn, two other artists currently receiving a lot of justified attention, also make my Top 10. The other seven albums on this list are all worthy of your attention. Songs from all ten of these albums were featured on Songs To Learn And Sing on 103.2 Dublin City FM throughout 2023 and Episode 940 (06 December 2023) featured 12 of my favourite songs from these 10 albums. Notes on all ten albums are below.
Songs To Learn And Sing EP 940
11pm Wednesday, 06 December 2023
Tunes from: Top 10 Irish Albums of 2023
Boa Morte – In Diagonal Light
Boa Morte – Mountain
John Francis Flynn – Mole In the Ground
David Long & Shane O’Neill – Reflections of a Dream
Niall Connolly – Distracted
Lankum – Newcastle
Slow Moving Clouds – The House Must Burn
SELK – Seconds
The Bonk – The Stars Look Great
Elaine Malone – Sin Eater
David Long & Shane O’Neill – Sound of Life
Lisa O’Neill – All of This is Chance
1. Lankum
False Lankum
They’ve deservedly won all the plaudits, but it needs to be pointed out - 2019’s The Livelong Day is a masterpiece. They made an album even better than The Livelong Day.
2. Boa Morte
The Total Space
The band’s fourth album saw a progression of their sound palette from a slowcore aesthetic into more ambient and synthesised sounds. The results were mesmerising. Boa Morte’s performance of these songs at the National Sculpture Factory in Cork was my favourite gig of the year. Working with renowned visual artist Peter Power and lighting designer Hanan Sheedy, the band created a genuinely unique mid-summer event on the Factory floor of the old Victorian Tramway building. Truly spellbinding.
3. Slow Moving Clouds
Kolmas
Slow Moving Clouds are Kevin Murphy on cello and vocals, Aki on nyckelharpa (keyed fiddle) and Ultan O’Brien on fiddle (O’Brien also contributes fiddle to John Francis Flynn’s album). This is their third album blending Irish and Nordic folk traditions with post-punk drones (we’ve heard that word a lot this year in relation to Irish music), baroque strings, and Murphy’s soaring falsetto vocals. ‘An Driúillín’, ‘The Longest Lie’ and ‘The House Must Burn’ were three of the best songs released this year. A fantastic album.
4. Elaine Malone
Pyrrhic
Descibed as “an Irish psychedelic-folk” musician, Pyrrhic is Malone’s debut alum. ‘The Hunger’ and ‘Sin Eater’ got multiple plays on Songs To Learn and Sing this year. ‘Moonthread’ and ‘My Baby’s Dead’ were other highlights from the album. It’s dark and dreamy, and as influenced as much by 60s psych as it is by 90s shoegaze. It’s beautiful.
5. The Bonk
Greater Than Or Equal To
It’s got elements of jazz, lounge-core, spacey experimental sounds, and garage rock. It even reminds me of those old Enoch Light Project 3 stereo test records. I hear something new each time I listen to it.
6. Lisa O’Neill
All of This is Chance
Like Lankum, 2023 has been an extraordinary year for O’Neill. Her performance of ‘Silver Seed’ on Later... with Jools Holland and her Tiny Desk concert for NPR were two of the broadcast highlights of the year. I first saw O’Neill supporting The Unthanks at the Pepper Canister Church in 2013. ‘England Has My Man’ stunned everyone in attendance that night, what an unbelievable 10 years she’s had since. All of Full is Chance is an incredible record.
7. Niall Connolly
The Patience of Trees
‘Artificial Lake’ from US-based Connolly’s album Dream Your Way Out of This One was my favourite song of 2017. He’s done it again: ‘Distracted’ from The Patience of Trees is without doubt my most played song of 2023. It contains the brilliant line, “I was undercover as myself” that has been stuck in my head since June. Other highlights from the singer-songwriter’s 8th album include: ‘Q53 Bus Song’, ‘It’s a Beautiful life’ and ‘Your Song on the Radio’.
8. SELK
Shed the Skin
“Have you ever heard a sweeter sound, so pure and crystal clear” - ‘Pure’
Anna Jordan plucks a ukulele, plays piano and layers her vocals, Dennis Cassidy provides percussion and strings are played by Kate Ellis and Cora Venus Lunny. The songs are delicate and raw, they draw on jazz, classical, electronica, and folk elements. Shed the Skin is breath-taking.
9. David Long &
Shane O’Neill
And You Can’t Dream That
“We’ve got all the time in the world, but still we need more time” - ‘And You Can’t Dream That’
David Long was in Into Paradise. Shane O’Neill was in Blue In Heaven. This is their third album together in less than two years. The old friends ask themselves: “Why would you try to make music at 60?” Their answer is simple: “Why would you stop making music?” Thank Christ for that. ‘It Comes and Goes’, ‘Broadway’, ‘Reflections of a Dream’ and the title track are some of the strongest songs the pair have written. A beautiful album from two masters.
10. John Francis Flynn
Look Over the Wall,
See the Sky
‘Mole in the Ground’, ‘Willy Crotty’, ‘Within a Mile of Dublin’ not to mention Flynn’s take on the two tunes that book-end the album: ‘The Zoological Gardens’ and ‘Dirty Old Town’ ensured that this would make my list. His follow up to 2021’s I Would Not Live Always came late in the year and capped an incredible year for Irish music.