Ah, well, worth a shot. Next time.
So first off I want to apologise for not getting more involved in my records picked month. Also for not doing the write ups earlier. These are incoming tonight so that they still, just, make in February.
Hope you’ve been enjoying them and that some people have picked up at least one of them!
I picked this one up when I saw a decent deal to get it sent over here. Loved this one back in the day, and had been looking for a while and this pushed me to get it done. I really thought they would get bigger after this, but really stayed at about the same level with not a ton of notoriety over here.Idlewild - The Remote Part
The two albums couldn’t be more different and were chosen for very different reasons. This is very much an album and band that meant an awful lot to me.
Idlewild are a Scottish band that bsgan aping hardcore (an early NME review infamously described them as sounding like a flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs) that gradually grew into their Scottishness and love of folk, now being a folk rock act when they convene.
This album was their commercial zenith when it felt like they might actually become really big, alas that wans to be. This album, however, was a genuine success with both “You Held The World In Your Arms” and “American English” being top 10 hits in the UK. I was really big into them at this time and saw them twice at two brilliant gigs touring this album too. It’s still an album that brings back a warm glow whenever I put it on.
I hope you all enjoyed this one too!
Lisa O’Neill - All Of This Is Chance
So why did I pick this album?
2023 was a stellar year for Irish music and particularly traditional Irish music. Throughout the year there was a succession of new and interesting albums twisting its into new and different directions. In pariticular Lankum and their offshoots garnered lots of well deserved praise and hype.
I picked Lisa O’Neill because she is different. Her voice is both unusual and also very much of its place, it carries a weight of history and culture to it. I became a fan with the album before this one but with this one she has stepped up a few levels. It was undoubtedly one of my albums of 2023 and I really hope that you are all employing it!