Favourite Irish albums of the CLUAS writers
Stephen McNulty's top 5 Irish albums of all time...
Act:
Power of Dreams
Album: 'Immigrants, Emigrants and Me'
Everyone of us has loved a band, eulogised a band, then not listened to them
for a while, until you have a flash of inspiration one evening while sat in your bedroom
with a new girl that you desperately want to impress and you dig out the CD from the
bottom of a dusty drawer under your porn mags. You clean the years of old crap off
the disk, put it on and been greeted with some horrible cacophony that
completely spoils your chances of getting your end away that evening. That won?t
happen with Power of Dreams lovely debut album, an album written by a Dublin
teenager called Craig Walker in the late 80s. It?s immature for sure and
terribly produced but it has great heart and, in '100 Ways to Kill a Love', one of
my favourite singles of all time.
Act:
Van Morrison
Album: 'Moondance'
In every way superior to its more lauded predecessor, Astral Weeks,
Moondance showcases Van the Man at the peak of his powers. Soulful, melodic,
jazzy, elegiac ? this album sounds so un-Irish that it seems totally out of time
and place, even today. The music has a lovely earthy quality, the lyrics full of
wonder at the world we live in. Hard to believe that this young man would become
such an old curmudgeon! Special mention has to be give to the 5th track, Into
The Mystic. All the reasons why Van is the greatest living Irishman are
contained in this three and half minutes of distilled genius.
Act:
U2
Album: 'Achtung Baby'
An obvious choice. But undeniably great. An album spawned from rupture
and discourse, U2 threw away their musty old blues and country albums and
explored Bowie (with a hint of Happy Mondays). The opening 30 seconds is a most
thrilling explosion of guitar noise ? this is the album where Edge truly
blossomed. As in my previous two choices, great albums walk hand in hand with
great songs. U2 will never better 'One'. Somehow this song defined the 90s for me.
Act:
Sinead O?Connor
Album: 'The Lion and the Cobra'
A terrific debut album. Difficult, confusing, intelligent,
confrontational ? Sinead?s music seems to describe her own personality better
than words ever can. Ireland?s music scene was, and is, male dominated and it
was so refreshing to find a young woman with such talent making music on her own
terms. Straight off the bat she had her own sound and a voice so powerful that
my hi-fi speakers at that time used to distort during Troy. Ah? happy memories.
Act:
Shane McGowan
Album: 'The Snake'
When I delved through my CD shelves to search for a lost Irish gem, the
CD that gave me most pleasure when I rediscovered it was this 1995 effort from
our most famous Irish heartthrob. A fabulously drunken affair, it is also more
aggressive than his more famous Pogues efforts. There is a great assault on the
Church (?Church of the Holy Spook?) and a lovely little ballad with Sinead
called ?Haunted?. The language is genuinely shocking in places (surely a great
Irish trait!) and the playing of the Popes is top drawer. A vastly under-rated
album and one that I am unashamedly using this CLUAS poll to resurrect!
- Check out the final Top 50 Irish Albums of All Time as voted by CLUAS.com readers
- Discuss this selection of best Irish albums of all time on the CLUAS Discussion Board.
- Check out the top 5 Irish albums of all time chosen by these other CLUAS writers:
Allen Conlan
Anthony Morrissey
Brano
Brian Farrelly
Brian Kelly
Celine O'Malley
Chris Ford
Ciaran Wrenn
Cormac Looney
Donal Griffin
Dromed
Gav Reilly
Hugh Tynan
Jimmy Murphy
Jules Jackson
Ollie O'Leary
Stephen McNulty
