There have been some considerable domestic highlights for Irish music in 2014 - a year in which Irish singer / songwriters have really come good.
While the much-feted Hozier is an obvious choice with his eponymous debut, it's Damien Rice's comeback album, in the form of My Favourite Faded Fantasy, that is particularly noteworthy.
The Celbridge singer's third album is Irish Independent columnist and Newstalk Breakfast contributor John Meagher's top pick for album of the year, backed up by a "sublime" show in Dublin's Bord Gáis Energy Theatre in November.
Other notable solo albums worth mentioning are James Vincent McMorrow's second album Post Tropical, former ASH frontman Tim Wheeler's Lost Domain and Adrian Crowley's Some Blue Morning.
It's also been the year that Sinéad O'Connor showed us that she means business, with the release of her latest album I'm Not Bossy, I'm the Boss ('8 Good Reasons' being the standout track). That's two really strong albums from the singer in a row.
Of the Irish songs that made an impact, it was hard to avoid Hozier's 'Take Me To Church' which was the most listened to song on Spotify with an incredible 87 million streams worldwide. It was quite a year for Hozier and many thought his performance at Electric Picnic was the highlight of the festival.
The U2 album was as much miss as hit, although it did get better the more you listened to it. Closing song 'The Troubles' is superb and had they hit those highs more often on Songs of Innocence they would have delivered something truly special.
Top ten Irish albums:
- Damien Rice – My Favourite Faded Fantasy
- The Gloaming – The Gloaming
- James Vincent McMorrow – Post Tropical
- Sinead O’Connor – I’m Not Bossy, I’m The Boss
- Delorentos – Night Becomes Light
- Adrian Crowley – Some Blue Morning
- Hozier – Hozier
- A Lazarus Soul – Last of the Analogue Age
- Tim Wheeler – Lost Domain
- Lethal Dialect – 1988
On Thursday, John will be bringing us his top international albums.
