By Brian Kelly

Hal’. Hal
If we are going to have a great summer in Dublin this year, let this self-titled album from Dalkey quartet, ‘Hal’ be the soundtrack.

Gorgeous hooks and harmonies abound and you can almost hear the sunshine in singer Dave O’Brien’s voice. If you are looking for reference points, the West coast of America in the late sixties and the Beach Boys might help you, but really, that’s just a starting point. There’s enough songwriting craft in evidence here, to suggest Hal can enter the big time. Definitely, one of the finest Irish debuts albums in recent times.

‘Takk’. Sigur Ros
So far north and so isolated, there has to be some weird stuff going on in Iceland.
And so it proves with Sigur Ros, who’s peculiar genius can be heard all over ‘Takk’.
If you haven’t heard this Nordic quartet before, well imagine Cocteau Twins meeting My Bloody Valentine around the time the latter made ‘Loveless’ and get a rough idea where these boys are coming from.

Considering their last album was sung in a makey up language called Hopelandic, had no song titles and no credits whatsoever, this is Sigur Ross’s most accessible album to date.

Over 65 minutes long, ‘Takk’ is an epic in every in every sense of the word. Tracks often begin with a simple riff or refrain before slowly building into an extraordinary cacophony of choirboy vocals, stirring strings, intense percussion and distorted guitar.

There’s no doubt that the landscape of Iceland has helped shape the music of Sigur Ros because a strange beauty resides within the confines and contours of ‘Takk’.

‘Guero’. Beck
Beck is back. After the introspection of 2002’s ‘Sea Change’, Mr. Hansen has put his dancing shoes on again with ‘Guero’, an hour long odyssey of fast, funky cuts from the man with no musical boundaries.

Closer to the spirit of Midnight Vultures and Odelay, ‘Guero’ finds Beck mix and matching music genres and rapping away like a spontaneous street preacher.

Re-united with his old sparring partners, the Dust Brothers, who co-wrote all the music on ‘Guero’– Beck has produced his most satisfying and joyous album in years. The opening track and single E-Pro sets the pace. There’s enough hooks, licks, samples and surprises thereafter to keep Beck devotes happy for many a day.

‘The Secret Migration’. Mercury Rev
Taking inspiration from their surroundings in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, Mercury Rev has produced another superb collection of songs in ‘The Secret Migration’.

Jonathan Donahue possesses a singular unique voice, high pitched, almost ethereal in tone. He uses it to great effect to articulate on the greatest love of his life: nature. Couched in the language of lovers, almost every song is an ode to the subtleties and serenity of the natural environment.

Following on from 2001’s ‘All is Dream’, Mercury Rev are producing some of the best music to come out of America at the moment.

TSM will hopefully win them an army of new admirers.

‘I am a bird now’. Antony and the Johnsons
Make room in your record collection for a torch-singing transvestite from NYC. Some records are so out there, so extraordinary, they defy classification. This is one of them.

Over the sparest backing track, sometimes just a piano accompaniment, a large white man sings songs of love, loss, friendship and redemption. He draws you immediately with the eloquence of his delivery and power of his voice.
Close your eyes and you’ll think you’re hearing a black man singing baritone.

Other times, the voice is soft, feminine, almost soprano. Stick this album on late at night, pour yourself a drink and listen to the drama unfold. Never has melancholia sounded so magnificent.

‘Funeral’. Arcade Fire
Canada rocks! It’s official. From Montreal, comes one of the year’s most audacious and compelling recordings. Partly inspired– if that’s the right word– by the death of so many close family relatives, Arcade Fire christened their debut album ‘Funeral’.

I don’t know if genius and grief are intertwined, but this is one album that quickly burns right through to your brain.

An ensemble effort by the six members of Arcade Fire plus nine other musicians, this is raw, heartfelt emotion backed by a taut, beautifully controlled sound. Never will the words ‘funeral’ and ‘dirge’ go together again.

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New Morissey album
Entitled ‘Ringleader of the Tormentors’, it can only be the new album from Morissey.
Produced by Tony Visconti, the man who was so influential in the career of David Bowie, it was recorded in Rome earlier this year, features lots of Visconti’s trademark lush string arrangements and will be released to the adoring masses in March.

One way ticket to the Point
You might have thought the novelty might have worn off by now but The Darkness continue to shine. They play the Point on February 6 to promote their new album ‘One way ticket to Hell. And Back’. Rooooooooock on!

Christy for the Point
Also getting to the Point is Christy Moore with Declan Sinnott playing support. They play together on December 29 and 30 and are already sold out. January dates for the dynamic duo have been confirmed for the 5th, 6th and 7th.

NME Tour starts in Dublin
The NME annual musical tour will start in Dublin next year for the first time before travelling to the UK for a 16-date tour. The line-up is always a good indication of the latest bands about to make to break onto the scene. This year’s line-up includes recent chart toppers Artic Monkeys and the Geordie band already making a name for themselves Maximo Park. Judge for yourself the 2006 newcomers at the Ambassador on January 24. An extra date has just been added for January23.