The 10 best Irish album... - Summit Wealth Investment Education Foundation

Ireland's creative boom is reverberating across all elements of culture - but while our actors and filmmakers continue their domination of Hollywood, our musical output has been exceeding expectations across the globe in recent years, too.

The proliferation of incredible music out there at the moment means that choosing the ten best albums is a pretty difficult task. However, needs must at this time of year... so here are ten of the best Irish albums released in 2024.

10. Gurriers - Come and See

With the advent of punk and post-punk revivalists like Shame and IDLES in the UK and Fontaines DC and Gilla Band on Irish shores, there was no way that a band like Gurriers were going to be left behind. Their explosive debut performance on Later with… Jools Holland last month brought them to the attention of many out foreign, but the Dublin band had already made an impression on home turf with their debut album, released in September. Crammed with insistent, frenetic tunes like Des Goblin and Approachable, it seethed with a clamorous, unrelenting energy that was impossible to ignore.

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9. A Lazarus Soul - No Flowers Grow in Cement Gardens

There is an everyman quality to A Lazarus Soul’s music that has led them to be dismissed by some as 'just another indie band’. Their loss. Even after 23 years of making music, the Dublin-formed band’s latest release confirms that they only get better with age. Frontman Brian Brannigan is one of Ireland’s most underestimated lyricists, the cut of his jib best heard on songs like the quietly devastating The Flower I Flung Into Her Grave and Diver Walsh, while his bandmates are a potent force on tracks like Glass Swans and the dark murmur of Black Maria. Songs like The Dealers and Wildflowers exemplify ALS’s approach to folk music framed against an indie-rock background, while there is a wide tapestry of influences audible across these songs. Through it all, A Lazarus Soul sear their own inimitable brand into its fabric.

8. NewDad - Madra

It was released at the very beginning of 2024, so there’s every chance that NewDad’s excellent debut album may be overlooked by many in their musical summation of the year. Nevertheless, the young Galwegians (now based in London) concocted a thrilling record that set out their stall as Gen Z’s prime proponents of grungey, introspective guitar music with songs like Nightmares, the serrated Sickly Sweet and the jangly thrust of In My Head. With frontwoman Julie Dawson leading the charge, it was a seriously accomplished and compelling debut.

7. Kneecap - Fine Art

The buachaillí dana of the Irish music scene came good on their promise in 2024 - not only with a brilliant biopic that caused ructions in the film world, but a long-awaited debut album that set out their stall as songwriters with integrity and vision. Of equal importance to the Belfast hip-hop trio’s political and personal manifesto, however, is a sense of fun. There are more than a few bona fide bangers on Fine Art in the form of I bhFiacha Linne, ravey folk ode to drug-taking 3CAG and nod to old school hip-hop in Sick in the Head. With guests including Lankum’s Radie Peat, Fontaines DC’s Grian Chatten and even writer Manchán Magan, it’s safe to say that there has never quite been a band like Kneecap - and Fine Art was an apt illustration of their unique worldview.

6. Niamh Bury - Yellow Roses

The folk renaissance shows no sign of slowing down, and amid a glut of wonderful records released in that genre this year, Niamh Bury’s was a standout. Signed to illustrious, recently-revived Irish folk label Claddagh Records, Bury’s capacity for storytelling was illuminated on songs like Bite the Bridle, Discovery and Beehive, while her take on traditional folk song Lovely Adam epitomised her approach to making music: respecting the tradition but spinning it to suit her own essence, many songs supplemented by subtle orchestration from a host of names from the Irish folk scene. It’s little wonder that comparisons to the likes of Laura Marling and Fiona Apple abounded: with this fully-realised debut, Bury can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them.

5. Callum Orr - The Trials of Knowing

There’s a pretty good chance that you’ve never heard of Callum Orr before; the Dublin musician has hitherto flown under the radar for the most part. His debut album, however, produced by indie musician Ailbhe Reddy, announced him with aplomb. These are beautifully understated songs, from the tender folk pluck of Prop, to the scuffed indiepop of Floorboards and the sean-nós-esque intro of Dust, Orr writes about love and loss in a gorgeously plaintive, affecting manner. It’s an album that encompasses the light and shade of life in the most engaging and tasteful way, and really ought to be heard by more people.

4. Silverbacks - Easy Being a Winner

Are Silverbacks one of Ireland’s most underrated acts? After hearing their third album, we’re convinced of it. There’s no reason that the Dubliners shouldn’t be as big as the aforementioned Fontaines DC, although that’s not to say that they’re a similar band. After two excellent albums, Easy Being a Winner showed no signs of repetition, with the art-rockers exploring new territory on songs like Spinning Jenny and the delightful Giving Away an Inch Of. Nods to Television and Thin Lizzy, Yo La Tengo and Stereolab abound, while the shadow of Mark E. Smith’s The Fall continues to burble under the current. A record that ducks and dives, spins and grooves, and is never anything less than a pleasure to listen to.

3. Sprints - Letter to Self

It’s been a huge year for Irish guitar bands, but one of the most potent releases was this gem of a debut by Sprints. The Dubliners have been through the mill this year, with frontwoman Karla Chubb speaking out about her assault at a gig, to founding member, guitarist Colm O’Reilly, leaving the band. Despite the difficulties, they had a stellar album to hawk around the world. Letter to Self ran the gamut from the frantic jitter of Heavy to the taut intricacy of Literary Mind, Sprints borrowing from their influences but fashioning the fragments into something definitively theirs. Quite simply, a brilliant album.

2. Exmagician - Sit Tight

You may have known Daniel Todd and James Smith in their former guise of Cashier No. 9, the Belfast band who epitomised the ‘should’ve-been-huge’ trope. No matter; the duo’s second album as Exmagician, a studio project essentially made around their day-jobs, is one of the year’s best. Meticulously-crafted indiepop with nods to everyone from The Beach Boys to The Beta Band, Sit Tight is a beautifully imagined collection of offbeat tunes that will reel you in, from the loungey Pistol to the psych-pop slouch of Sharpen These and the dreamy Instinct. Sheer quality, from start to finish.

1. Fontaines DC - Romance

Over the last five years, Fontaines DC have undoubtedly become the darlings of the Irish music scene, but with good reason: each album has swerved expectations of what an ‘indie band’ is supposed to sound like. Their fourth record may well be their best yet, with songs like Starburster and Here’s the Thing adapting a new depth to their sound, and Favourite making a solid claim for song of the year. With gut-punching tenderness and prickly wallops across 37 minutes, the breadth of the Dublin band’s scope and ambition is remarkable - and it shows no signs of slowing down, either. Perhaps most importantly, the five-piece seem intent on crafting albums in an era where listeners are intent on skipping through to the next song. Romance is an album that simply works, from its first note to its last.

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