The next industry insider to share with us her musical recommendations from the last twelve months is music journo Miriam Doora. What did she choose as her top five songs and albums of the year? Let's find out, shall we?
Previously: Dan Hegarty | Steven Gannon | Edda Kjarval | Louise Bruton | Leanne Harte | John Barker | Dave Hanratty | Andrew Lambert | Paul Page
TOP FIVE SONGS OF 2013
Daft Punk - 'Get Lucky'
Get Lucky is a tune that needs to be included in any list of 2013’s best. This single hit all the right notes this year. It is a funk and disco anthem by French house music and helmet sporting duo Daft Punk. The song was co- written by Nile Rogers, of Chic fame (the man is a living legend) and Pharrell Williams (who is fast becoming one). With such a winning formula and blend of creative genius; the chemistry is so good it is no wonder that get lucky has become a musical institution. This song will have drunk uncles up dancing at weddings for years to come.
Hozier - Take Me To Church
Take me to Church is a beautiful, poignant and powerful single by Wicklow native Andrew Hozier Byrne. He was raised on blues music and tradition. The lyrics are deeply poetic as he uses religion and spirituality as a metaphor to describe intimacy with his lover. The song is hauntingly beautiful and his vocals pack some punch. The video accompanying this song is equally as powerful and is a criticism of Russia’s anti-LGBT policy. I can’t help wondering what Hozier makes of the very recent and deeply shocking ruling by the Indian Supreme Court to criminalize homosexuality. A beautiful song by another artist to watch closely in 2014.
Hiatus Kaiyote - Nakamarra
Hiatus Kaiyote are a four piece outfit from Melbourne, Australia. This is a band who are hard to define musically speaking, but will satisfy even the most discerning musical palate. They are effortlessly cool and that very fact translates into their music. Nakamarra, which features Q-Tip, is a stomper of a single from their album Tawk Tomahawk. It is a significant single and it has earned the band a Grammy nomination, and the first Australian band to be, in the R&B category. It is a beautiful and personal song written from experience. This is a band that needs to be watched.
The Original Rudeboys - Never Gonna Walk Away
Never Gonna Walk Away is a stellar tune and the latest offering from Dublin trio The Original Rudeboys. This is a band that are coming into their own and have acquired a really impressive following, via YouTube. It has all the elements which compose a hit, possessing great lyrics and it has great pop sensibility to boot. It is an infectiously catchy tune. Wayne from Love/ Hate features in the video for this track. You don’t get more Dublin that all these elements combined!
Imagine Dragons - Radioactive
This is a dark and foreboding pop, dub step and rock amalgamation offered by American rock band Imagine Dragons, which has gained them two Grammy nominations. It is comprised of intense vocals. It is a dark song, both haunting and mesmerizing in equal measure, concerned with themes of revolution and apocalypse. Heavy and intense but a significant piece of music.
TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF 2013
David Bowie - The Next Day
2013 gave us the twenty fourth studio album entitled The Next Day by veteran of the industry, David Bowie. It has been a long decade since his last album and it was definitely worth the wait. There is something very dark and mysterious about this album that invokes genuine intrigue. The album is intelligent and suggests that a creative and personal metamorphosis has been experienced by the artist. It is foreboding in essence, yet with really upbeat offerings, reminiscent of previous works like China Girl and Let’s Dance; considering You will set the World on Fire. Nostalgia is visited but not indulged. The album concludes in the most dramatic of fashions, in true bowiesque style, with Heat. It is presented as a sonic funeral march, is it the death of Bowie as an artist that is being suggested? Is it the next day for the artist and is The Next Day the last album to be unleashed? It is food for thought as the album was announced on Bowie’s sixty sixth birthday and forty years after the release of Aladdin Sane, a sense of completion and conclusion lingers. The Next Day has been nominated for the 2014 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.
Janelle Monae - The Electric Lady
The Electric Lady is the second studio album by Monae and it is an impressive concept album that continues and further evolves her theme of the dystopic cyborg concepts indicative of previous work. The Electric Lady offers the fourth and fifth installment of her metropolis concept series, which is seven parts in entirely and pulls some inspiration from the 1927 film Metropolis. This album is nineteen tracks in total and it is clever, creatively confident with genres of jazz, rock, hip-hop, soul, gospel and funk included and merged. The themes of empowerment, identity and freedom are also explored. The song Q.U.E.E.N, featuring Erykah Badu is engaging, compelling and powerful. In addition to Badu, there are guest appearance by Prince, Solange, Miguel and Esperanza Spalding. This album will not only make you think, it will make you move. Beautiful ballads also comprise The Electric Lady; is an active and dynamic album that engages the listener completely. Superb stuff.
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Push The Sky Away
Push Away the Sky is the fifteenth studio album by the Australian alternative rock outfit and is significant in being the first album not to feature founding member Mick Harvey who parted ways with the band in January 2009. The album is an intriguing surprise in its subtly, which is more so than previous works. The songs strut the delightfully ugly beauty of Cave's craft as a writer and they are simpler and lower key, yet the snarl is present albeit in a more underlying manner. The nine track album is minimalist in essence, very pensive, profound and somber; mournful almost, with simple arrangements and melodies. The band's ever present menace and desolation are there, but not as aggressive in concentration as previous albums. Push Away the Sky commences with We No who U R, which is a surprising tender ballad and the album evolves nicely from this, but the raw grit and portent is ever present too.
Valerie June - Pushin' On A Stone
This is a sublime debut album by quirky Memphis singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Valerie June. She is paving her own way in the business, and does in no way conform, she is starkly and impressively original. Full of juke- jointy-sitting on the porch tunes such as Workin’ Woman’s Blues and Somebody to Love that will delight as well as inspire as this artist is refreshingly original in her approach to music. This approach frankly is a breath of fresh air in today’s increasingly plastic and generic offerings. The album is Pushin’ Against a Stone, and with it June offers a delicious mix of roots, folk, blues, country soul bluegrass and appalachian music. Dan Auerbach, of The Black Keys fame digs out to co- produce an album that will have you stomping your feet and marveling at the fundamental genuine nature of her vocals and the twang the entertain. She has brilliantly described and defined her music as Organic Moonshine Roots Music. June is a resounding one to watch in 2014.
The Strypes - Snapshot
The Strypes are a tremendous band of the rhythm and blues tradition and one full of style; in fact… they are oozing and bubbling over with the stuff. Snapshot is the debut album and it delivers a vintage sound that is so retro in existence; from such a young band, it is nothing short of outstanding. This Cavan quartet have the combined average age of seventeen years, but do not in any way be fooled by their tender years. The Strypes are so clued in musically. Ross Farrelly’s vocals are similar to those of Eric Burdon in rawness and shear grit and their musicianship and chemistry as a band can’t but impress. The album gives us foot stompers such as What a Shame and She’s so Fine and the sublimely blue Angel Eyes (what a tune!). This album possesses energy which so infections and retro in essence and it reminds us just how good the harmonica sounds. It is a stunning debut album by The Strypes. It is one to be commended and with a band so young, the feeling that they are only stretching their musical muscles lingers.
