20 more Irish second albums to (re)introduce yourself to...

We've all heard about 'the difficult second album' syndrome, but 2fm's Dan Hegarty gives us a further 20 follow-up Irish albums that saw Irish acts beat that sophomore slump, with spectacular results...

Sack - Butterfly Effect (Dirt Records, 1997)

The late 90s were rich on talent but light on commercial impact where Irish artists were concerned. One of the finest albums released during this period is Butterfly Effect by Sack. It’s an album filled with glorious punchy guitar riffs, and intoxicating vocals from Martin McCann. Morrissey was a huge fan of the band, and if you were to listen to songs like Laughter Lines, Climb Mine Powerhouse, and Latitude, you’d immediately hear why. One of the other significant things about Butterfly Effect is that it’s the first album that Jacknife Lee appears on in a production capacity. He would go on to work with U2, Taylor Swift, One Direction, R.E.M, and many others.

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Katie Kim - Cover&Flood (Flaming June, 2012)

Some artists emit a level of individuality that makes it almost impossible to muddle them with anyone else. In recent times Billie Eilish is a perfect example of this, as was Grimes when she emerged over a decade ago.
From her work as part of Dae Kim, and her solo debut Twelve, Katie Kim set herself apart from others with a hushed yet powerful vocal delivery. Cover&Flood is a masterstroke of light and shade; from the haunting Heavy Lighting to the brief but brilliant 51-second Sugar, the album cares little for the conventions that are all too present in music.

Simple Kid - SK2 (Country Gentleman Recordings, 2006)

Like on his 2003 debut, Simple Kid made most of the music released at that time sound decidedly ordinary. The calibre of songs such as The Twentysomething, Mommy n Daddy, and Lil King Kong is quite staggering.
Dave Fanning once commented that if Beck had released this album, it would have been a global success. Listening to it almost a decade and a half later, it’s still hard to disagree with him.

The Boomtown Rats - A Tonic for the Troops (Ensign Records - 1978)

Album number two from The Rats featured 10 tracks, and what strikes you when you listen to it is there isn’t even a hint of a wrong step. Opening with the anthem Rat Trap, closing with Joey’s On The Street Again, it illustrates everything great about The Boomtown Rats. The album’s mid-point Like Clockwork was the first song played on Radio 2 (that’s 2fm these days) in 1979 by the dearly missed gentleman Larry Gogan. Time doesn’t stand still for any music, and A Tonic For The Troops is no exception, but its bite and attitude are not to be underestimated.

Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (Sacred Bones - 2020)

Birthmarks is one of 2020’s most striking albums. Released just as lockdown started, it’s an album that helps remove your thoughts from where ever they may have been languishing. In other words, it’s music that you can fully immerse yourself into. You’ll often hear people talking about music being suitable for the twilight hours, and Birthmarks does fit this description in many ways. Tracks such as Lay Bare, The Mouth and Orange Tree could serve a soundtrack to those moments just before sunrise; the balance between their darkness and light is found in perfect measure.

David Holmes - Let's Get Killed (Go Beat - 1997)

Before he embarked on a career that would see him soundtrack numerous Hollywood blockbusters, David Holmes was one of the artists that was helping to push the boundaries of electronic music. Every bleep and beat of Let's Get Killed sounded new at the time of its release. When you hear My Mate Paul and 69 Police, it’s not just the nostalgia that hits you, it’s how influential that they’ve become to countless Irish and international acts. Could you say that Let’s Get Killed is Holmes at his best? You certainly could for this part of his career, but what was to follow was fascinating in a different kind of way.

HamsandwicH - White Fox (The Route 109A Recordings - 2010)

If HamsandwicH struggled with making what’s often described as "the difficult second album", you’d never know if from listening to White Fox. Their debut album Carry The Meek (2008) reflected what a strong live act that they had become, while White Fox saw them become a band that were just as capable in studio as they were on stage. White Fox strikes the balance between big guitar tracks like OH-OH and a softer folkie sound of Ants with precision. There’s an art to the order of songs on albums that’s often missed, and HamsandwicH solved this musical equation with ease on White Fox.

Daithi - L.O.S.S. (Strange Brew – 2019)

What's the difference between a really good album and a great album? It’s often something as simple as a repeat listen, as "greatness" as we know it doesn’t always reveal itself immediately. This is exactly the case with Daithi’s album L.O.S.S. With a cast of contributors that includes Sinead White, Bell X1’s Paul Noonan, The Sei, and Ailbhe Reddy, it’s an album that made up of layers of beautifully executed ideas that come together to form a truly complete album. If L.O.S.S was a soundtrack, it would be to a movie that you would revisit on many occasions.

An Emotional Fish - Junk Puppets (Atlantic Records - 1993)

When you talk about expectations for a second album, few acts encountered the kind which reached the lofty heights that surrounded Junk Puppets. After the positive reaction to their 1990 self-titled debut, An Emotional Fish were set to go supersonic with what was to follow. Junk Puppets didn’t propel the Dublin-based to the expected altitude, but from a creative point of view, it saw the band make huge steps forward. It wasn’t just the singles Rain and Careless Child; album tracks like Half Moon and Yeh Yeh Yeh serve as a polaroid to the quartet’s creative sense of adventure, and willingness to take chances.

The Holy Roman Army – One Atom That Was You (Collapsed Adult Records – 2012)

What a brilliant album One Atom That Was You is. It’s like one of those best-kept secrets that you only impart to ones that you truly care for. The brother and sister duo of Chris and Laura Coffey, circumnavigate an atlas of sounds over 11 tracks, and manage to avoid any counter-currents. The eerie opening of Estevez is followed by the dreamy grooves of Rope, which is one of the album’s standout tracks. As you move deeper into the album, the unusual sounds of Crawling Slow is complimented by the rhythmic nature The Nightfallers, and the beautiful Fluttering which sounds like a collaboration with Flaming Lips producer Dave Fridmann. Not meaning to be repetitive, but what a brilliant album...

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The Radiators - Ghostown (Chiswick Records – 1979)

Ghostown was the second album from the band that is widely acknowledged as having released Ireland’s first Punk album (TV Tube Heart in 1977). After dropping the From Space part of their name, The Radiators didn’t waste any time basking in the acclaim that their debut had brought them. If you were to hold the beautifully remastered vinyl re-issue of this album aloft, you may notice the words Produced and Engineered by Tony Visconti listed alongside the album’s tracklist. Ghostown has glam, it has punk, but it also has healthy amounts of pop; in other words, songs that could connect with just about anyone.

Evvol - The Power (Mad Dog & Love - 2020)

Here’s an album that places you in the past, present, and perhaps the future all at one time. In part it reminds you of vintage Goldfrapp, but at the same time, it’s very much a progressive piece of work that is very much its own. Berlin-based Julie and Jane have been making music together for more than a decade, and The Power sees all that experience and chemistry gelling together to bring us this hugely impressive 15 track album. A starting point might be Speedboat, W.A.R, Call Me Back, or Help Myself, but you won’t go wrong beginning anywhere.

The Plague Monkeys - The Sunburn Index (Crosstown Music - 1999)

The Plague Monkeys were a brilliant band that hardly ever gets mentioned anymore. During the late 1990s, they released some outstanding material that was at a standard where you could legitimately play it alongside acts like Mazzy Star and Portishead. 1997’s The Navigator EP is an excellent (re)introduction, but their finest work appears on their second and final album The Sunburn Index. Sea Change is exquisite, as is 256 Shades Of Grey and Doppler Effect, but the real jewel is 23C which sounds like Mary Margaret O’Hara collaborating with The Red House Painters.

The Sunburn Index by The Plague Monkeys

Messiah J & The Expert - Now This I Have To Hear (Inaudible Records - 2006)

As bizarre as it may sound, many people didn’t get how you could be Irish and make hip hop in the year 2006. It’s still something that artists encounter today, but far less thankfully. Messiah J & The Expert launched their second album Now This I Have To Hear in October of 2006. All these years later Abandon Ship and When The Bull Gores The Matador sound well when they’re played alongside the best of what’s happening in today’s landscape, while Place Your Bets and All The Other Girls serve as a reminder of what a pure talent MJEX were.

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Ash – Nu-Clear Sounds (Infectious – 1998)

Reading back over a band’s career can sometimes be misleading. How so you may ask? In the case of Ash, the modest sales of Nu-Clear Sounds in comparison to their debut 1977 would suggest that it is artistically underwhelming. Bolstered by the addition of Charlotte Hatherly, Ash not only flexed their muscles on the singles Wild Surf and Jesus Says, but showed their adaptability on songs like Folk Song and Low Ebb. If you don’t know it, here awaits a hugely underrated and underappreciated chapter of Ash’s adventure.

8Ball – With All Your Friends (Death Of A Clown Records – 2009)

8Ball’s career seemed to speed by in a nanosecond. On reflection, the Dublin-based outfit certainly packed a lot in, with the highlight arguably being their second and bookend album. With All Your Friends delivered on all the promise and potential illustrated on their 2005 debut self-titled album. Tracks like Handfuls, Dig It, and Trust Me are breaking any new ground in style, yet their magical spark never diminishes. They were a band that you could have easily missed over the years, but time spent discovering their brief but rich catalogue would be highly recommended.

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God Is An Astronaut - All Is Violent, All Is Bright (Rocket Girl - 2005)

Released 15 years ago last February, this album contains tracks that are still some of the core tracks to any God Is An Astronaut live show. It’s also the album that really helped ignite international interest in the band, of which they would embrace fully in the years that followed with endless touring around Europe, North America, Asia, and Russia. Opening with the aptly titled delicate tones of Fragile, the album glides from emotional highs to darker brooding moments. Some of the standout moments include Fireflies & Empty Skies, Dust & Echoes, Forever Lost, and the quite magnificent Suicide By Star. Many albums have been described as journeys, and this really is one; a magical one.

Afro Celt Sound System - Volume 2: Release (Realworld - 1999)

January of 1999 saw Afro Celt Sound System give us an album that captured the brilliance of the fusion of their sound. Combining traditional African and Celtic music with electronic elements had been done before, but the results had never sounded quite as good as this. The Afro Celts’ lineup has changed many times over the years, but during this period they had James McNally and vocalist Iarla Ó Lionáird as members. The title track featuring Sinead O’Connor sets the tone, and you can’t overlook Éireann, Bog Cat, and Lovers Of Light, which are exceptional tracks.

Jape - The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me (Trust Me I’m A Thief - 2004)

In the years leading up to the release of The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me, Jape (Richie Egan) was best known for being a member of the much-loved Redneck Manifesto. He’d released the debut Jape album Cosmosphere a year earlier, but it was this second album kicked his solo career into gear. He won the affection of acts like The Raconteurs with the single Floating, but this was not a one-song album. To The Sea and The Hardest Thing To Do still sound as engaging as they did 16 years ago. The Monkeys In The Zoo Have More Fun Than Me was in some ways an axis change for Egan; no longer he of The Redneck Manifesto, just simply Jape.

Lir - Nest (What Are Records - 1995)

Where Lir found the time to record this album still remains a mystery! During the mid-1990s, the Bayside band undertook a number of marathon-length tours of North America. If you were lucky enough to have seen them play during this period, you would have witnessed one of the tightest live acts around. Coming up with songs as rich as Wickerman, Temple Child, and More To Me in the middle of this incredibly busy period only underlines the pedigree of this band. There hasn’t been a studio album from the band since, but the chances of previously unheard material being released remains an exciting prospect.

20 more Irish second albums to (re)introduce yourself to...

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Selective Retrospective: Dan Hegarty revisits great Irish Albums

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