While male singer / songwriters reigned on the domestic front in Ireland this year, it was female musicians who shone on the international stage.
Annie Clarke, AKA St Vincent, Taylor Swift and FKA Twigs are among a long list of women who Irish Independent columnist and Newstalk Breakfast contributor John Meagher believes delivered in 2014.
Only one word can describe St Vincent’s eponymous fourth album and that’s: outstanding. It more than fulfilled the promise of her first three, with ‘Prince Johnny’ being one of the highlight tracks.
American songwriter Sharon Van Etten along with British newcomer FKA Twigs also released notable albums Are We There and LP1 respectively.
It was also the year that Taylor Swift confounded expectations with a great pop album named after the year of her birth, 1989 (*shudder*).
‘Shake It Off’ one was of the big hits off Swift’s latest album and it’s sure to have been a catalyst for the freshly-crowned Princess of Pop selling out two dates in Dublin in June next year.
Some established names also came up trumps in 2014, among them Blur's Damon Albarn with his solo debut Everyday Robots.
Maestro Beck also packed some serious indie punch, on album number nine, Morning Phase, which was very much a companion to his monumental 2002 record, Sea Change.
On the live front, there was no shortage of brilliant gigs from veterans Robert Plant and Peter Gabriel to Arcade Fire who rocked Marlay Park spectacularly two days after they headlined Glastonbury.
Top ten international albums:
- St Vincent – St Vincent
- Damon Albarn – Everyday Robots
- The War on Drugs – Lost in the Dream
- Beck – Morning Phase
- Sharon Van Etten – Are We There
- Sinkane – Mean Love
- Caribou – Our Love
- FKA Twigs – LP1
- Taylor Swift – 1989
- Aphex Twin – Syro
