HeadStuff’s Best New Irish Music | 9 Best Tracks Of January 2023
And we’re back! After taking a little break for the month of December in order to crown the finest Irish albums of 2022, HeadStuff’s BNIM returns to celebrate the finest new tuneage around the country every month.
We’re kicking off 2023 by taking a look at an excellent collection of tracks below that reigned in the year with style this past month.
As always, you can check out these tunes and many more by following along with our BNIM Playlist on Spotify, which will catch you up on all the best stuff from 2023 while keeping you in the know on all of the best new Irish music according to HeadStuff every single month.
Now let’s get to the good stuff.
Mhaol | ‘Therapy’
What better way to kick off than with another ripper from feminist punks Mhaol. The band’s debut album Attachment Styles drops on February 3rd and looks set to be an early year highlight for Irish rock, as evidenced by the raw execution and unflinching themes of tracks like ‘Therapy’.
Danny Carroll | ‘Affection’
Switching up the vibes, we turn to Danny Carroll with his shimmering debut single ‘Affection’.
Carroll’s sincere yet self-deprecating lyricism is perfectly complimented on ‘Affection’ by a gorgeous backdrop comprising chimes, celeste, timpani, guitars and keys in a soothing whirlpool of baroque folk.
This idiosyncratic first outing for Carroll introduces us to an intriguing songwriter that we’ll be hoping to hear much more from throughout 2023.
David Kitt | ‘Wishing Well’
Veteran genre-bender David Kitt returns with his ninth studio album Idiot Check at the end of March, and while ‘Wishing Well’ offers a blissfully introspective wave of electronica, you can be sure that Kitt will bring a variety of styles and sounds on another experimental LP.
Arborist | ‘Dreaming In Another Language’
There’s an undeniably hypnotic beauty to the lead single taken from Arborist’s upcoming third studio album.
An Endless Sequence Of Zeros is out this April, and if the mind melting psychedelia of ‘Dreaming In Another Language’ is anything to go by, this is going to be another spectacular record from Mark McCambridge.
This Ship Argo | ‘Half-ban’
As detailed in our review of Flowers, Sparks, Fireworks by Fran Winston this past month, the latest LP from Aileen McKenna is another triumph on her third full length release as This Ship Argo.
My personal highlight goes to ‘Half-ban’, a shining instrumental that nonetheless finds a way to make McKenna’s voice the star of the track thanks to her wondrous use of the vocoder.
Montauk Hotel | ‘Dive (Come Afloat)’
On their first release since 2019, Montauk Hotel offer up a glorious wave of nostalgia for 80’s dream pop, with the incandescent glimmer of ‘Dive’ finding a common ground between classic new wave a la The Cure and the modern psychedelic rock of contemporaries like Goat Girl.
Banríon | ‘departure party’
According to Laoise Slattery, Banríon’s second EP Dare to Crush is a bit bangin’.
It’s hard not to agree, with the sticky guitar lines and social commentary of ‘depature party’ in particular standing out for frontwoman Róisín Ní Haicéid’s contrastingly bitter and buoyant address on the current state of Dublin city.
Nell Mescal | ‘Homesick’
2023 could be a big year for Nell Mescal.
After radio silence since dropping ‘Graduating’ last July, the Maynooth songwriter returns with a drastically different sound to the balladry of her summer single, gleefully thrashing out an infectious power pop barnstormer on ‘Homesick’.
Lisa O Neill | ‘Silver Seed’
One of the most enigmatic folk stars in Ireland returns in February as Lisa O Neill unveils All Of This Is Chance on the 10th, and ‘Silver Seed’ is another reminder of the devastating power in O Neill’s singular voice.
We’ll be taking a look at O Neill’s latest masterclass in greater detail next week, but for now enjoy the stirring wonder of ‘Silver Seed’.
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