The Goo 1
Opinion DAN HEGARTY Stop, Rewind, Change Sides On
e of the all-time best Irish guitar bands are back with new material. Fangclub unleashed their track ‘Attention’ on March 1st. It finds the band in the kind of form that we’ve come to know from them; they have that gift of writing wonderfully noisy and memorable tunes. It’s the first release from the band since their second album ‘Vulture Culture’ in 2019. Last month’s cover stars NewDad were back in Dublin at the end of February as part of their tour promoting their debut album ‘Madra’. Both nights at The Button Factory sold out very quickly. Let’s just leave it at; what a show, what a band, and what an album. Lauren Ann has finished the recording of an EP called ‘Devour’, which is set to release in late summer. ‘Need’ is the first single from it, which Lauren describes as “a song about never feeling like you have enough and constantly wanting more. It is about being blind to the good things in your life and inevitably wasting them.” Recorded with Rocky O’Reilly, the lead track suggests that we’re in for something pretty special from this EP. Amidst all the excitement about U2’s historic run at Sphere in Las Vegas and ‘Achtung Baby’ receiving the Classic Irish Album award at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize, the anniversary of one of their other albums may have slipped past you. Their hugely underrated 12th studio album ‘No Line On The Horizon’ turned 15 on February 27th. Along with strong singles like ‘Magnificent’ and ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’, it has many stunning tracks like ‘Fez -- Being Born’, ‘Unknown Caller’, and ‘Stand Up Comedy’. MathMan announced details of his first post Mango x MathMan activity recently. This comes in the form of the album ‘SK83 –The Prequel’. It’s due out on May 10th, and has been described as “A sonic coming of age tale through Dublin life and the Dublin city’s rave culture circa 1998.” It’s another jump back in time to wrap up this month… 2013 was a decent year for Irish music. One of the albums that stood out back then was ‘Unit 1’, the debut and so far only album from Nanu Nanu. The duo consisted of Glitterface and Mirrorman, and their sound was dubbed ‘alien pop’. There’s still a sparkle from these songs 11 years on from the album’s release, which goes some distance in describing this debut’s quality. PAGE 12 MATHMAN FANGCLUB AUTRE MONDE'S PADDY HANNA NEWDAD LAUREN ANN U2 NANU NANU