The Goo 1
Albums OCT '25 - age cannot wither them, nor cust
om stale their infinite variety. ‘Should’ve Told You’ is a thing of beauty, somehow managing to incorporate all of the touchstones I alluded to earlier into one monumental ballad while ‘The Way Lights A Fire’ is awash with melodic earworms over a beguiling folk/motorik groove. ‘Waiting For The Only One’ is another sumptuous ballad while ‘Chains’ has possibly the chorus of the year. A cracker of an album and the best thing here is that the title points to a Part Two; bring it on. The Sentimental Tourists - The Sentimental Tourists EP - Paul McDermott The Sentimental Tourists are Dave Long and Paul Page. Long was the singer and guitarist with Into Paradise and Page was the guitarist with Whipping Boy. The duo describe this EP as: “low-fi, DIY adventures from the Underground class of 89.” That’s a perfect description, and it’s a lovely nod to the Underground pub on Dame Street where both Into Paradise and Whipping Boy played formative gigs in the late 80s. In recent years Long has released three albums with his old friend Blue in Heaven’s Shane O’Neill but these songs mark Page’s first recordings in almost a quarter of a century. It’s wonderful to hear his guitar-playing again. It’s hard to pick a favourite but if I had to, it’s ‘Happy Beatle’ with Long’s mournful refrain of “sooner or later, you’ll find your way back to me” smothered in Page’s gorgeous guitar. It’s beautiful. The Sentimental Tourists EP is available on Bandcamp. The Next New Low - The Unreachable - Leroy Tanner Brian Mooney was an Idiot in the last decade of the last century of the last millennium. He has now finally released his debut album under the moniker of The Next New Low and it’s great. Sonically it’s nothing like the wall of noise he made in the 90’s while playing with Dublin seminal noiseniks The Idiots but he has created his own beautiful kerfuffle over six tracks that embrace life and loss head on. Utilizing a borrowed Casio keyboard as the bedrock of his musings, Mooney has crafted a body of both forward looking and elegiac tunes that tug at the heart while stimulating the senses. Musical touchstones include Mac De Marco, Grandaddy and Beck but it’s way more than that. Mooney’s voice is a lived in receptacle for an emotional heft that is rarely found in records these days. This man has been through hell and back; it’s in the delivery, its in the words but, in his world, hope always springs eternal no matter how fucking shit life can be and it makes this record the thing of beauty it sets out to be. A warm hug of an album. Electric Penguins - The Way Lights A Fire, Pt.1 - Leroy Tanner Another band who should be, if not huge, at least a well known name in the Irish music firmament. Their 2010 album II included classic singles like ‘Highgate Hill’ and the sublime ‘Airships Fly Over Beaches With Godetias’ while showcasing lead singer Mark Cummins crystalline soprano/alto vocals and Paul Murphy’s musician/producer wizardry. As often is the case, they had far more radio play on BBC 6 than on Irish airwaves so remain mostly anonymous in their homeland which is a shame because this band have, and continue to, release some of the finest, well crafted adult oriented alt pop music this side of peers like Elbow, Radiohead and Air while genuflecting at the altars of The Beatles, Kraftwerk, Nick Drake, Pink Floyd and ELO. This, their first since II, is no less brilliant and proves that - to paraphrase the Bard hyperlynx - Rest Energy - Brendan White An Irish – Swiss three piece bring out a strikingly atmospheric long player this month on Dublin indie, Little Gem Records. The group feature guitar (Laurent Méteau), Fender Rhodes (Philipp Schlotter) and drums (Matthew 11