Oisin Leech
Colour Of The Rain
Fans of the classic songwriter style of the likes of Richard Hawley (and indeed M Ward) will find much to appreciate in the acoustic quietude and gentle synths in ‘Colour Of The Rain’.
From Lost Brothers’ Oisin Leech‘s debut solo album Cold Sea, produced by Steve Gunn and featuring M Ward, Dónal Lunny, Róisín McGrory and Tony Garnier (a long-time member of Bob Dylan’s touring band).
“My aim with this album was to write a collection of songs that told a complete story, and to record them near the ocean, using the sea as a kind of mirror for the songs. “‘Colour of the Rain’ I spent weeks writing, maybe longer, with each verse addressing a stage in my life. It touches on forgiveness. Looking at the past and moving on.”
Oisin Leech
Orla Gartland
Mine
Every time this song comes on I think it’s Julia Jacklin singing which If you know me, you know this is the highest of compliments to Orla Gartland.
There’s beautiful and meaningful intimate songwriting here.
“’Mine’ is by far the most vulnerable song I’ve written to date – putting it feels a little scary but also hugely important to me. It tells a fragmented story of an experience that really affected my relationship with intimacy and how that stayed with me throughout relationships that followed. I wanted to give the lyrics on this song space to breathe so we kept the production super minimal on this track; live vocal & guitar and a super beautiful, haunting 4-piece string part. This was my first time recording real strings on a song of mine and for me they bring even more emotional depth to the track. I’m really proud of this song and whilst I hope in a way that no one relates to it, I hope it can bring comfort and hope to anyone who does.”
Ana Palindrome
Sorry A Million
There’s a palpable Stereolab feel to ‘Sorry A Million’ a debut song from Ana Palindrome, who are the Cork-based trio of Niamh Dalton (vocals, fiddle – Trá Pháidín, The Bonk, Anna Mieke, Caoilian Sherlock and Mantu ), Ruairi de Búrca (synths, programming, Crying Loser, Trá Pháidín) and Sara Leslie (bass, vocals – Trá Pháidín & pôt-pot).
The project centres a fictionalised character, Ana Palindrome, a personification of the songwriting.
“Ana’s generally a bit shook and rattled by the world but has enough fire in the belly to turn the drama into soft bops and dreamy ballads”.
Niamh Regan
Nice
From the Galway singer-songwriter’s second album Come As You Are on Faction Records), comes this different direction for the artist, trading in warm Radiohead-esque basslines, and a plea to get out of your own way.
Nice is song inspired by the idea the only person getting in your way is yourself (most of the time anyway). I really enjoyed how this song came to life in the studio with Tommy McLaughlin in Attica Studios. The bass line gave it so much life and it’s now one of my favourite songs to perform live now.”
Pillow Queens
Like A Lesson
‘Like A Lesson’ from the album Name Your Sorrrow has a classic 90s rock feel, on a song about the exposing nature explores longing for intimacy and a desire for closeness as well as the fears and insecurities that come with sharing one’s self.
“The notion of finding safety and comfort in the presence of love of limerence is emphasised, contrasting with the paralysing fear of making mistakes or ruining your life or someone else’s. It delves into the feeling of being a lesson for someone, a side character in someone else’s story.”
“Sonically, we were influenced by a range of artists from Blur and REM to Semisonic, New Radicals, and Squeeze. It began as a song we felt had a strong country music influence and morphed into something that referenced a wide range of our musical tastes. It’s the 90s soft rock song on the album.”
Or:la
Chant
‘Chant’ is a a body riddling-rhythm with vocals by Or:La herself inspired by life in London, and the city’s socialites from Derry DJ and producer Or:la’s debut album Trusting Theta.
F3Miii
Say My Name
‘Say My Name’ is a beguiling track drawing on the DNA of Timbaland-chart club R&B and dance atmospherics that has been reappearing on my rotation for its repeatable simplicity and short running time (1 minute 38 seconds).
Houseplants
No Pushover
Bell X1 frontman Paul Noonan and producer Daithí dropped their second Houseplants album Half Known Things and it featured this propulsive surreal electronic pop jam, with Noonan lyrics inspired by Elon Musk’s penchant for discussing how we are all in a simulation with his brother in a hot tub. Ah, that explains a lot actually.
Bonus points for the stylophone usage.
Gotta draw myself up to full height
And say, Today I will sell this house!
Stop dragging my knuckles on the ground
Doing most of my breathing through my mouth
Villagers
I Want What I Don’t Need
Another song from Conor O’Brien with great lyrics about the nature of desire, ego and what drives us to want more than the bare necessities.
From his sixth album That Golden Time.
“Who is using who?” asks Conor O’Brien. “I think it explores the often-simplified notion of privilege.”
Ahmed, With Love.
GeorgianFlip.
From Dublin/Sierra Leonean rapper Ahmed Karim Tamu’s debut mixtape Comma, Full Stop.’s collection of vibey hip-hop and Brazilian-influenced tracks is this short and memorable beat that demands an elongated guest verse remix if you ask me.
Olive Hatake, Daryl Bengo
Ghosts
A great example of the electronic euphoria Olive Hatake reaches on his second album Boys Need Love, one of my top 10 Irish albums of the year.
Daryl Bengo nails the vocal too.
Skinner
Geek Love
As Skinner’s manager, I’m obviously biased in liking his music, and ‘Geek Love’ is another fine twist of the no-wave knife, which is off the upcoming 2025 album alongside the previously released songs ‘New Wave Vaudeville’ and ‘Tell My Ma’.
‘Geek Love’ is pure taut noisy punk-funk with bongo percussion, firey saxophone, razor-wire guitars and a lyric that celebrates the outsiders. A debut album is released in January.
“This song is inspired by one of my favourite books “Geek Love” by Katherine Dunn. It’s about a bunch of circus freaks that live in an isolated travelling circus community who never interact with the general public apart from their live shows for fear of harassment and persecution for who they are. I think being a functional member of society can be claustrophobic at the best of times and it’s draining to constantly be trying to meet people’s standards and fit in if you’re different. I liked the book because it celebrates being weird and original instead of always trying to sweep that part of your existence under the carpet. I also think it’s quite empowering to be able to make someone uncomfortable by doing nothing more than just being yourself.”
Skinner’s album New Wave Vaudeville is released on January 10th 2025 on Faction Records.
Fontaines D.C.
Starburster
Four albums deep, it’s exciting to hear Fontaines D.C explore production and sonics with James Ford at the helm.
‘Starburster’ is an outlier in the context of the album Romance. It’s clearly a swerve in the rock’n’roll road with a slight nods to nu-metal guitars, and the panic-motioning breaths from Grian Chatten (who sounds more like Liam Gallagher than he ever has previously).
‘Starburster’ felt like the band’s first real attempt at writing a big rock single and they nailed it, and there’s enough of a widescreen feel to the song, particularly the gentle breakdown – to suggest that Fontaines have new shades to show us.
Bricknasty
Boyfriend
A highlight from Bricknasty’s XONGZ mixtape, a live favourite and a perfect example of their off-kilter earworm soul punk jazz vibe.
“I wrote this song for me ma and her girlfriend at the time (2019). They’re split up now but it was good while it lasted and I’m happy for her always and happy this song came from them twos relationship.”
New Jackson
Out of Reach
David Kitt released the second album from his electronic project New Jackson OOPS!… POP, and its strengths are its techno pop meets standard songwriting duality, and I dig the Stock Aiken Waterman ’80s reference in its up-to-date sound.
“Out of Reach was the last track I wrote for the album. I had a version of the album that Iiked but the whole thing didn’t feel quite ‘oops’ or ‘pop’ enough. I had the melody and chorus of Out of Reach knocking around for a while and I wrote and recorded the lyrics and vocals in one long session the day before mastering was booked. It gave the album a shot of pop urgency that made it really gel as a whole. I get a mild bang of Jason Donovan off it but it has giddy techno-pop sugar rush that I really like and it makes it a worthy addition to the New Jackson canon. And hey Jason D via Stock Aiken and Waterman is definitely part of my pop musical DNA.
David Kitt.
Sloucho, Emby, k-caz
Brand New
Along with its superb Aisling Phelan video that feels like a GTA Easter Egg, ‘Brand New’ is a dose of garage two-step urgency that showcase the cub raps of Emby and k-Caz.
‘Brand New’ features on Sloucho’s NPC album.
single men in their twenties
don’t be asking me
JJ Lee and Cónal Murphy are behind the Cork project single men in their twenties, with the debut EP The Sunday Scaries.
‘Don’t Be Asking Me’ is The track is basically an annoying conversation you’d like to get away from from a relative turned into a great song, that builds to an outburst batting away the impending social ineptitude and annoyance at being asked about your own lack of social mobility.
a lazarus soul
The Dealers
A Lazarus Soul chiefly identify as a Dublin band. Their last album was called The D They Put Between the R & L, and their songs talk of the true Dublin working class.
From their album this yea r- No Flowers Grow In Cement Gardens, ‘The Dealers’ is a beautiful stirring acoustic and string-arranged song about Dublin street traders.
The song is a beautifully-realised elegy to Bridie and Tessie, two Dublin characters “out on their feet, selling knocked-off Reebok along cobbled streets.” The song’s orchestration is by Joe Chester and features noted Irish musician Steve Wickham on violin.
The pleasure of listening to the lyrics of these characters is a big part of the appeal, as is Brian Brannigan’s vocal.
The video for ‘The Dealers’ was made by Myles O’Reilly. The song was directly inspired by singer and songwriter Brian Brannigan’s trips with his mother Peggy to get the groceries from Moore Street’s street traders, which Brannigan calls “a love letter to these warrior women”.
Kabin Crew, Lisdoonvarna Crew
The Spark
Do not pretend you are above this song – it slaps.
Silverbacks
Giving Away An Inch Of
The Irish indie-rock band Silverbacks third album Easy Being A Winner was absolutely a winner for me, with ‘Giving Away A Inch’ being top of the pile, thanks to vocals from Emma O’Hanlon and the ringing circular guitar work.
NewDad
Sickly Sweet
From the smart, confident and superbly-produced (by Chris Ryan and and mixed by Alan Moulder) debut album Madra from London-based Galway band NewDad, ‘Sickly Sweet’ draws from the darker edge of Irish shoegaze bands of recent years (Just Mustard come to mind), the classic indie vocal style of Julie Dawson, and a bit of grunge to boot.
‘Sickly Sweet’ is defined by Dawson’s disgust and nonchalance with an unhealthy attraction.
Morgana
I’ll Cry When I’m Dead
‘I’ll Cry When I’m Dead’, the debut single from Morgana MacIntyre amplifies the epic reaches that was often present in the music of Saint Sister, her previous band with Gemma Doherty, across two albums Shape of Silence (2018) and Where I Should End (2021). Morgana has already stated the project’s modus operandi of sorts: “prepared to party, ready to cry”.
The melodic nous in the vocals and declarative chorus is also familiar to fans of Saint Sister, but the Morgana project operates in a different palette of synthesized pop (and treated backing vocals), a bright and gilded song of euphoric intent about keeping the fire burning, through partying, codependency and seeking advice.
Curtisy
Landmine!
I switched the song up from the regular songs of the year list because it was a tossup between the two Curtisy songs for inclusion. I love the flip from dominance to despair throughout this song. This boy can rap.
RÓIS
CAOINE
Taken from the Fermanagh composer, vocalist, multi-instrumentalist and electronic artist’s MO LÉAN EP, which was inspired by recordings of keening songs.
‘Caoine’. brings together ambient sounds, a beautiful vocal, blipping electronics, synths, sean nós with additional dark-edged production from John Spud Murphy (OXN/Lankum).
It’s a song that just soars.
Fontaines D.C
Favourite
‘Favourite’ is a song from the band’s fourth record Romance that finds the band at their most Whipping Boy-esque with a sound that feels like a /throwback late 80s Irish indie rock and ’90s UK indie touchstones like early Stone Roses.
It closes the record, and is a perfect example of the band’s ability to write a perfect understated classic pop song.
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