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It was a bold declaration, but one I stand over. In more than 20 years writing about music for the Irish Independent, I don’t remember a year as good for homegrown talent as 2023. Often, it’s hard to argue that there were 10 exceptional Irish albums in any calendar year; this time there were comfortably 20. And when I drew up that number of superb albums, there were yet others that didn’t quite make that cut, but still come highly recommended.
As part of our 12 Interviews of Xmas series, we're looking back at some of our unmissable interviews of 2023. In the run-up to the release of his Unreal Unea.
In the 22 years that I have been writing about music, I can’t remember a better one for homegrown albums than 2023. There are usually about a dozen excellent offerings among the 200-odd albums released by Irish artists each year.