Island Schallplatten & CDs

Review: Inspired initially by the likes of Screaming Jay Hawkins, Tom Waits and Nina Simone, the Wicklow-born Andrew Hozier-Byrne nurtured his own unique voice, taking soulful gravitas and bluesy grit and using them to sculpt songs with both a soul-searching approach and an unusual earthiness. His first single Take Me To Church was a surprise hit, its existential crises and potent melancholy striking a chord via their intensity of delivery, and this debut shows that it was no flash-in-the-pan. In a world of young artists overly obsessed with overstating their own authenticity, it doesn't take long to work out you're in the presence of one with raw talent to render such concerns redundant.

Review: U2's latest album finds the iconic rock band re-recording some of their back catalogue songs. The whole record has been produced by The Edge and in all there are 40 tunes coming in companion to famous bespectacled front man Bono's memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, from last year. The record took two years to record during the pandemic and after reviewing demos arrangements were tweaked and in some cases reinterpreted and often redone in a more acoustic setting. Fans have received the album well and it is fair to say there is plenty to like about it.

Review: This is a white vinyl verison of U2's latest album which finds the iconic rock band re-recording some of their back catalogue songs. The whole record has been produced by The Edge and in all there are 40 tunes coming in companion to famous bespectacled front man Bono's memoir, Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story, from last year. The record took two years to record during the pandemic and after reviewing demos arrangements were tweaked and in some cases reinterpreted and often redone in a more acoustic setting.