album

It’s difficult to listen to Taylor Swift diss tracks and not picture the star wringing her hands at just how clever she’s being. On 1989, songs like ‘Style’ and ‘Shake It Off’ hit the mark and toe the line of side-eyeing pop stars who broke…

Time once again to step into the past in order to weigh up the cream of the crop of the Irish music scene. This time out it's 1984, a very special year indeed for NO ENCORE host Dave Hanratty. He and Delorentos man Kieran McGuinness are…

My earliest experience in Hip Hop dates back to 1983 and hearing Malcolm McLaren’s Buffalo Gals for the first time, but it wasn’t until '84 that my first excursions into this world were made. I was 12 when I saw Breakdance (Breakin) in…

How do you define Blur? The band forged their career by stylistically swerving left and right as dueling talents Damon Albarn and Graham Coxon fought for control of the wheel. By 1997 they’d built their fortune on cheeky characters, sticky…

Welcome to the inaugural episode of NO ENCORE: THE REVISIT, in which we go back in time to a chosen year in Irish music and attempt to determine the gold standard of the era. Join regular NO ENCORE hosts Dave Hanratty and Colm O'Regan on…

The xx I See You Seemingly out of nowhere, London band The xx burst onto the scene in 2009 with a stone cold classic in their debut album XX. The album garnered universal critical acclaim and went on to win the 2010 Mercury Prize. Their…

The NO ENCORE boys are back - not in town, for they already reside there - with all the happenings in the music world, with everything from Kanye West's hospitalisation to We Cut Corners' recent headline show in Temple Bar to the return of…

We Cut Corners The Cadences of Others A music year like 2016 doesn’t come along all that often. Globally, we have seen some of the best releases of the decade seize the public consciousness, experiment and divide critical opinion.…

Pixies Head Carrier  Sometimes reviewing an album can be difficult owing to the knowledge that one might have about the artist's personal situation. Obviously you do your best not to judge anything except the audio itself, but very…

Warpaint Heads Up 12 years after forming in Los Angeles, a short hiatus, and three albums, Warpaint offer Heads Up, a welcome return for the dream pop foursome. Fans of previous efforts such as the superb 2008 EP Exquisite Corpse and …