Fontaines DC, Kneecap or a surprise? Choice Music Prize Irish album of the year nominees profiled
Fontaines DC's Romance; Kneecap's Fine Art
The fourth album from the London-based five-piece, all have been nominated for the Choice Music Prize, but they’ve never walked away with the top gong. That could change this year. They’re selling out arena dates across the world and have a couple of Grammy nominations under their belt - plus Romance is their biggest and best album to date. Grian Chatten stakes his claim as the best frontman around on the irresistible lead single ‘Starburster’, thinks about commitment on ‘Bug’, and eyes early 90s indie acts like Whipping Boy on closer ‘Favourite’. It’s produced by James Ford, who helped Arctic Monkeys scale their own heights almost 20 years ago.
A cult band who have released six albums stretching back almost 25 years, this is their fourth with the current lineup and their second great album in a row following 2019’s The D They Put Between the R and L. The vocals and lyrics are what linger longest. Led by Brian Brannigan, he has created a whole cast of characters (Ten Past, Shroney O'Brien, Sawn-Off) and ne’er do wells as he ruminates widely on police brutality in the US, gentrification around Dublin - particularly the traders on Moore Street - and three-day benders. The Waterboys’ Steve Wickham adds violin to a record expertly recorded by the band’s Joe Chester (who was nominated for the inaugural Choice Prize in 2006 for his solo album A Murder of Crows).
The debut album by Gavin Curtis aka Curtisy, a rapper in his mid-20s from Tallaght. He only started rapping during lockdowns, starting at house parties. It’s a safe space, allowing him to channel Earl Sweatshirt and, closer to home, Kojaque, as Curtisy displays a deep vulnerability. Music offers him an escape from his family life (“Why can't you love me as I am, mam?” he ponders on ‘Mad at Me’, asking later: “Do you listen to the raps, Dad?
You know I miss your bike, Dad?” All the while, drugs are ever-present - just look at the album cover. A good introduction to an artist with a bright future.
London-based Orla Gartland has had a busy couple of years, releasing debut album Woman on the Internet in 2022, a buzzy sideproject with Dodie dubbed Fizz in 2023, and last year returned with her second solo album Everybody Needs a Hero. It’s a, er, fizzy collection of straightforward indie-pop tracks, Gartland mines her early YouTube days when confessing on the opening line of the record, “I thought I knew it all”. She revels in skyscraper choruses on ‘Little Chaos’, the Declan McKenna-featuring ‘Late to the Party’, and the full-on ‘Kiss Ur Face Forever’.
On the list of Belfast trio Kneecap’s achievements over the past year, their long-awaited debut album probably ranks below their Bafta and court victory against the British album. But if taken on its own merits, Fine Art is such an exciting collection. Warped vocals from Lankum’s Radie Peat open proceedings while Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten takes the lead on the best song of the record, ‘Better Way to Be’. The various interludes - all the events of the album take place in community boozer the Rutz - are hilarious, it shines a bright light on the Irish language, and, produced by Annie Mac’s husband Toddla T and influenced by the likes of the Streets and indie sleaze, goes hard.
Galway four-piece NewDad have had a surprisingly meteoric rise over the past five years, enjoying early support from BBC 6 Music. They’ve since moved to London and, lucky for them, saw shoegaze ride a TikTok trend last year. Their swirling indie sound feels a little samey over the 40-minute runtime of Madra, the shimmering ‘In My Head’ helping shake the malaise. Led by Julie Dawson, they say the idea of the title is that these feelings that come up are sometimes ones you can’t escape – feelings that follow you around like a dog.
Galway singer-songwriter Niamh Regan closes her second album with a ‘secret’ song featuring the Choice Prize-winning SOAK. You can almost hear the smile on Regan’s face as she sings wry lines like, “Are you still at the music, are you teaching again?” It points to how she, most of all, perhaps didn’t think music would work out. But the word-of-mouth success of 2020’s Hemet - which garnered a Choice nod - led to critical bouts of self-doubt which drive Come As You Are. “Can you help me get out of my own way,” she pleads on ‘Nice’. She dabbles in a full-band indie pop sound, but it’s the lyrics which mark Regan as one of the best songwriters in the country.
Fermanagh-born, Belfast-based Rose Connolly aka Róis calls this a concept EP. At only nine tracks, including four interludes, one wonders should it even be on the Choice list considering her debut album proper is set to arrive later in the year. But Mo Léan is still a striking piece of work. She reimagines the Irish tradition of keening that dates to pre-Christian times, when women would let out a lamenting wail at the side of a coffin during a wake. Produced by Lankum’s John ‘Spud’ Murphy, the opening and closing tracks are otherworldly, Róis’s cut-up yelps adding up to an epic crescendo. As for those Angelus and death notice interludes, she says they act as breathers - they also garner a laugh from the listener.
Spread across Kildare, Dublin, Drogheda, and Paris, this is Silverbacks’ third album and finds them fully at ease in their own skin. They admit they rode a Fontaines-driven post-punk buzz for a few years but unlike any number of other guitar acts in the country, they’ve managed to shake that label. It’s indie rock with killer guitar licks right from the get-go. ‘Hideaway’, a track that really shows their progress over the years, is welcome for bassist Emma Hanlon taking lead vocals alongside Daniel O’Kelly’s slacker style, while ‘No Rivers Around Here’ just sounds so easy for the band. No need to ride someone else’s coattails anymore, Silverbacks are one of the best guitar acts around.
A fierce live band who have also been helped no end by support from 6 Music, Sprints’ debut album begins with a kickdrum that sounds like a heartbeat, before Karla Chubb asks: “Am I Alive?” Some 40 pulsating minutes later, the listener will be in no doubt as to the answer, after a sweltering, exhilarating blast of rock music. They cite Savages as influences, while Daniel Fox on production duties ensures a Gilla Band aside, though the most fun song here, ‘Literary Mind’, points to the wonkiness of Fight Like Apes.
- The RTÉ Choice Music Prize takes place at Vicar Street on Thursday, March 6
It will be a shock if the 12 judges, plus chairman and Choice Prize co-founder Jim Carroll, don’t narrow it down to a straight shootout between Fontaines DC and Kneecap.
It’s about time Fontaines won - but how can they ignore the year that the Belfast rappers have had?
As ever, there's plenty debate about albums that 'should' have made the Choice shortist. Here are 10 possibles:
- Niamh Bury – Yellow Roses
- Gurriers – Come and See
- Landless – Lúireach
- James Vincent McMorrow – Wide Open, Horses
- New Jackson – OOPS!… POP
- Pillow Queens – Name Your Sorrow
- Súil Amháin – athPhORT TraviS,
- Elzzz – Doghouse
- Villagers – That Golden Time
- Yenkee – Night Golf
The Choice Prize began in 2006 with singer-songwriter Julie Feeney picking up the inaugural gong for her debut album 13 Songs, released the previous year.
Here’s the full list of winners over the years:
- 2005: Julie Feeney – 13 Songs
- 2006: The Divine Comedy – Victory for the Comic Muse
- 2007: Super Extra Bonus Party – Super Extra Bonus Party
- 2008: Jape – Ritual
- 2009: Adrian Crowley – Season of the Sparks
- 2010: Two Door Cinema Club – Tourist History
- 2011: Jape – Ocean of Frequency
- 2012: Delorentos – Little Sparks
- 2013: Villagers – Awayland
- 2014: The Gloaming – The Gloaming
- 2015: Soak – Before We Forgot How to Dream
- 2016: Rusangano Family – Let the Dead Bury the Dead
- 2017: Ships – Precession
- 2018: O Emperor – Jason
- 2019: Lankum – The Livelong Day
- 2020: Denise Chaila – Go Bravely
- 2021: For Those I Love – For Those I Love
- 2022: CMAT –If My Wife New I’d Be Dead
- 2023: Lankum – False Lankum
