ON last weekend’s Green and Live show on Live 95, which broadcasts every Friday at midnight to 2am on Saturday, presenter Alan Jacques took a look back at the best Irish singles and albums of the last 12 months. According to Alan, 2022 was another bumper crop for Irish music with the Treaty City being no slouches either when it comes to top quality tunes. In fact, the Green and Live ‘Album of the Year’ came from Limerick post-punk poet Sinead O’Brien for her visionary debut album ‘Time Bend And Break The Bower’. Other Limerick artists such as John Steele, Fonda, Pity of the Sea and Japanese Jesus also featured on the end of year list, while Dublin two-piece Huntings were Green and Live’s ‘Ones to Watch’ tip for 2023. Alan’s ‘Single of the Year’ went to Fontaines DC for their overtly political track ‘I Love You’. “It’s not every day you hear Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael worked into the lyrics of a scorching anthem for the ages,” Alan enthused.
SINGLES
BT9 – Fruity
40 Years – Craig Walker and The Cold
Break The World – John Steele
Only Good Things – The Murder Capital
Impending Doom – Japanese Jesus
Irish To My Bones – Rowan
Green and Live
‘Ones to Watch’ for 2023
Sub-Surface – Huntings
Eight Fivers – Gilla Band
Literary Mind – Sprints
Banshee – New Dad
Luna – Marie-Therese
Railroad King – Junk Drawer
My Oh My – First Class and Coach
Letting Go – Fonda
Green and Live ‘Single of the Year’ for 2022
I Love You – Fontaines DC
ALBUMS
The Unseen – Pity of the Sea (Incessant)
Bruised – David Long and Shane O’Neill
(Age of Finding Stars)
Strange Rejoicing – The Wicc
(The Wolf Chronicles Part One)
Emptiness Follows – Aoife Nessa Frances (Protector)
Maelstrom – Benjamin Amos (Letters)
Dead Trees – The Shaker Hymn
(The Last Concorde)
Maelstrom – MELTS (Maelstrom)
Still – Just Mustard (Heart Under)
Cod Liver Oil & The Orange Juice –
The Mary Wallopers (The Mary Wallopers)
Be By Your Side – Pillow Queens
(Leave The Light On)
Jane Birkin – Clara Tracey (Black Forest)
Communion – CMAT
(If My Wife New I’d Be Dead)
Jackie Down The Line – Fontaines DC
(Skinty Fia)
Falun Gong Dancer – Telefis (a hAon)
(Green and Live
‘Album of the Year’ for 2022)
Like Culture – Sinead O’Brien
Salt – Sinead O’Brien
(Time Bend and Break The Bower)
