New Releases (24 October)
Pop singer-songwriter CMAT has this month released her second album Crazymad, For Me on AWAL Recordings. The twelve-track record follows the artist’s 2022 debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead which won the RTÉ Choice Music Prize Album Of The Year award earlier this year. The new album features previously released singles ‘Whatever’s Inconvenient’, ‘Stay for Something’, and ‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight’, the duet track with American singer-songwriter John Grant.
Brian Dillon, member of indie-electronic band Meltybrains?, has announced a new album under the moniker The Line. Red Blood Cells and Righteousness, which is due for release on 1 November via the Strange Brew label, is a collaborative body of work and features many guest artists including Loah, Sorcha Richardson, Dan Fox of Gilla Band, Sarah Corcoran of Pillow Queens and Caoi de Barra of Wyvern Lingo. Two singles from the album have already been released, including ‘Patience of Saints’, featuring Limerick hip hop artists God Knows and Murli, and ‘Communion’ with singers Loah and Fehdah.
Folk duo Ye Vagabonds have released their film Nine Waves. The work is a visual accompaniment to the pair’s previous album of the same name, released in May 2022 on River Lea Recordings. The project, which is a collaboration with film production company Tiny Ark, is a visual representation of the sound world in which the album is set – primarily within a derelict building in Dublin and on location on the island of Árainn Mhór, off the coast of Donegal. The film, directed by Alex Delap, features regular collaborators Alain McFadden, Cormac Begley, Ryan Hargadon, Kate Ellis and Caimin Gilmore. Nine Waves is available to watch on YouTube.
Other recently released albums include Irish Rock n Roll, the second album from Dundalk folk band The Mary Wallopers; Nothing But Green Willow: The Songs of Mary Sands and Jane Gentry, the new collaboration from English folk singer-songwriter Martin Simpson and American singer-songwriter Thomm Jutz, released on Topic Records; and the new record from cellist, singer and composer Naomi Berrill, Inish. Rapper Kojaque’s second album Phantom of the Afters, including previously released tracks ‘Woof’ and ‘Johnny McEnroe’, is released on 27 October on Soft Boy Records.
Also recently released is the new film by Myles O’Reilly and Quiet Lights festival, A City Under Quiet Lights. Filmed during the 2021 festival, A City Under Quiet Lights features performances from Lisa O’Neill, Joshua Burnside and Laura Quirke, Niamh Regan, Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh, Kate Ellis and Caimin Gilmore, Junior Brother, and Rachael Lavelle, in locations across Cork city.
Dublin rapper Nealo has announced that his second album November Medicine will be released on 17 November and several singles from the record have already been released, including ‘Only Human’, ‘Tears You Cry’ and ‘Forest’. Nealo will launch the album at Whelan’s on 17 November. The album is now available for pre-order.
Folk singer John Francis Flynn has shared ‘Willie Crotty’, a new single from his upcoming album Look Over The Wall, See The Sky, due for release on 10 November; Kate Ellis and Ed Bennett have this month released a new album Strange Waves on the Ergodos label; and Claddagh Records last month published Real to Reel: Garech Browne & Claddagh Records by James Morrissey – a large-format hardback book and vinyl box set celebrating the life of Guinness heir and co-founder of the label Garech Browne.
Other recent releases include the new single from Limerick rapper Strange Boy with collaborator Enda Gallery ‘For a Man to be Content’; jazz guitarist Lee Meehan’s debut album Some of Us Are Looking at the Stars; Cork singer-songwriter Polly Barrett’s latest track ‘Following Her Truth’; and ‘Craggy Hill’ by Mike Hanrahan.
Listen to a playlist of all recent releases below. To submit your release, email newreleases [at] journalofmusic.com.
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Published on 25 October 2023
Shannon McNamee is Assistant Editor of the Journal of Music.