Blackstar

The RTE Choice Music Prize, that is. This week, your NO ENCORE wrecking crew boasts a roundtable of academic music-related excellence as it welcomes back Kieran McGuinness of Delorentos fame alongside your regular trio of Dave, Craig and…

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.…

Leonard Cohen You Want It Darker Since emerging as a long in the tooth heritage act, Leonard Cohen’s output has been a lot stronger than it's really had any right to be. Popular Problems and Old Ideas proved to not only be as good as…

"Like today I was feeding the receipt machine out and trying to scribble down some lyrics that popped into my head..." There’s this cliché about musicians, working in coffee shops, scrawling down lyrics and ideas any chance they get at…

Blackstar, David Bowie's final album, a curious mix of free jazz, Nadsat and Death Grips, had surprisingly little buzz surrounding it in the build up to its release. Had Neil Young or Bob Dylan or Tom Waits announced that they were…

David Bowie Blackstar There were a few sure things about Blackstar, the final chapter of David Bowie’s Technicolor musical life. It would be brilliant, naturally, strange, ahead of its time and wholly wonderful. Jumping at the chance to…