Here’s a rundown of new albums and EPs on DSPs and physical releases in record shops this week.
Nialler9 keeps a rolling list of Irish album releases for 2025.
New Albums and EPs:
New Albums
Bon Iver – Sable, Fable
Justin Vernon’s is in a happier mood on his fifth album turning his textured indie rock into a soulful declaration of love and rebirth. Featuring Danielle Haim, Dijon and Flock Of Dimes, Sable, Fable feels like a new chapter for the project.
Paddy Hanna – Oylegate
Dublin singer-songwriter Paddy Hanna gave up music in the couple of years before this album was made. Family and friends convinced him to keep at it, and producer and collaborator Daniel Fox also encouraged this fifth album, after a trad-style album was abandoned.
Oylegate was written while watching Solaris with the sound off at home, on piano and it features Hanna’s trademark classic songwriting-tinged craft, and the superlative ‘Harry Dean’ and ‘Oylegate Station’ – songs that have a “contrast of warmth and detachment, of intimate revelation and surreal detour.”
Paddy’s Irish tour starts April 17th and takes in Dublin, Limerick, Wexford, Belfast, Cork before Festivals shows at When Next We Meet and Beyond the Pale.
Lullahush – ithaca
The Irish producer Daniel McIntyre’s album that follows up the 2024 EP that wondered sonically how to bring Irish trad and electronic music together.
The Athens-based producer from Dublin releases ithaca through Future Classic, home to records from Flume, Chet Faker and Sophie previously.
The album “explores how a holistic marriage of traditional Irish music and contemporary electronica can express a unique perspective on modern Irish identity.”
‘Maggie na bhFlaitheas’ (Maggie of the Heavens) is the album’s lead track, and the record continues that theme while interrogating ideas of “pride, home and belonging.” The song takes the reel ‘Over The Moore To Maggie’ and bends into into a fast-paced electronic number.
Mamalarky – Hex Key
Mamalarky are a Los Angeles indie rock foursome withpsychedelic pop, jazz and math-rock tendencies.
Tara Nome Doyle – Ekko
The Norwegian Irish singer-songwriter based in Berlin has a third album Ekko to be released on April 11th via FatCat Records
‘Heaven In Disguise’ is a delicate song indicative of the record as a whole – a restrained soundscape with piano, strings, Mellotron and analogue synths with Doyle’s voice undulating in the register with emotional heft.
The album and title was inspired by the myth of Echo and Narcissus from Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Doyle found parallels in Echo’s story in her own:
Echo’s story—losing her voice and sense of self as she’s cursed to repeat others’ words—felt like a powerful metaphor for Tara’s own journey. She went from creating unique songs with ease to relying heavily on external validation, twisting to fit others’ expectations and losing touch with who she was.
The album was made with Grammy winning producer and engineer Simon Goff (The Joker, Chernobyl).
Sherelle – With A Vengeance
London jungle and footwork producer and DJ capitalises on a strong few years on the circuit with the surprise release of a debut album of high-energy disciplined ravey weapons with nods to garage and dub with a focus firmly on its rhythms.
sign crushes motorist & KayCyy – SADDEST TRUTH
Donegal slowcore artist Sign Crushes Motorist started making music with friends recently and this one is with Kenyan-American rapper, singer and songwriter KayCyy mixes highlife, rap and live instrumentation.
Wu-Tang And Mathematics – Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman
Black Samson, the Bastard Swordsman features appearances from all nine surviving Wu-Tang members: Method Man, Raekwon, Ghostface Killah, Cappadonna, U-God, Masta Killa, Inspectah Deck, GZA and RZA, along with Kool G Rap, Kurupt and Benny The Butcher. It follows up the Clan’s last collaboration with producer Mathematic from 2017. Record Store Day release – tomorrow Saturday April 12th.
Gangster Doodles – Gangster Music Vol.3
Closing chapter of artist and illustrator Gangster Doodles’ MC and beat series.
Features 30 tracks from Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Tommy Wright III, Mr. Scruff, Peanut Butter Wolf, DJ Harrison, Quelle Chris, Homeboy Sandman, Suzi Analogue, Chuck Strangers John Carroll Kirby and many more.
Ethereal Skies: Aerga Vol. 02
Aerga, aka “the air or the ether” (as Gaeilge)
Dublin label, party and platform Ethereal Skies led by the London via Dublin artist darkmavis launches volume 2 of the Aerga series, dedicated to locally-focused avant-garde electronic practioneers and producers.
Electronic music in all its forms is represented – jungle, ambient, hard-drum, bass music, hardcore and trance included on tracks from R. Kitt, Lunasa, Lighght, Dj Deep Heat and more.
The Mars Volta – Lucro sucio; Los ojos del vaci
The Mars Volta’s ninth studio album “celebrates their roots, allowing them to reconnect with their origins.” The band have been performing the album in full live.
Hotgirl – Blast Off EP
Dublin four-piece indie band Hotgirl’s new EP on Cartoon Records.
Previously featured febrile track ‘On The Brink’ features alongside ‘Sisyphus’, a sarky slinky guitar band song with Ashley Abbedeen’s lyrics a standout.
Hotgirl are Ashley Abbedeen (Vocals, guitar), Sophie Boxwell (lead guitar), Jake Hurley (bass), Nick Stanley (Drums).
Norabelle – The Mountain Blinks
Dublin/Dundalk indie folk band’s second album.
“The Mountain Blinks explores the themes of memory, grief, and the fragility of life. It’s deeply personal, touching on my own experiences of loss and how those memories shape us, even when they’re fleeting or unreliable.”
Norabelle features Ken Clarke(Guitar & Vocals), Shane O’Hanrahan (Guitar, Vocals, and Piano), Stefano Rossi (Bass), and Stephen Ludlow(Drums), and draws influence from artists such as Sun Kil Moon, Bonnie Prince Billy, and Sufjan Stevens.
Softdrink Millionaire – Sound EP
Psychedelically-tinged indie Bray quartet release their debut EP. They cite the twee indie of Belle & Sebastian as influences along with the granular songwriter Richard Dawson, and the post-rock of Slint.
Emerging from the seaside town of Bray, County Wicklow, Softdrink Millionaire are used to being on the outskirts of something bigger. Beginning as an informal collective of friends and collaborators around the writings of poet and songwriter Josh Fortune, the line-up would eventually solidify with guitarist Joe Dillon, fellow TERD co-founder Thomas Earls taking up bass guitar, and the Mountain Runner singer-songwriter Jack Lawlor on drums. The outfit would soon find their place in a burgeoning DIY scene amongst the likes of Binmen, Burglar, Hotgirl, and Madra Salach, centred around shows in venues like Dublin’s Anseo, Bray’s Harbour Bar, and the monthly outsider poetry and arts night Top End Romantics Division also known as TERD.
Also released today / tomorrow for Record Store Day
- Cold Specks – Light for the Midnight
- Damien Dempsey – Shots 20th Anniversary
- Eyedress – Stoner
- Gorillaz – Demon Days: Live from the Apollo Theater (Record Store Day)
- Joni – Things I Left Behind
- Joni Mitchell – Live 1976 (RSD)
- Painting – Snapshot Of Pure Attention
- Pixies – Bossanova / Trompe Le Mode – Live From Europe 2023 (RSD)
- Rage Against the Machine – Live on Tour 1993 (RSD)
- Röyksopp – True Electric
- Sam Fender – Me And My Dog EP
- Various Artists – Chet Baker Re:imagined
