Dec 8, 2017
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Sean Rowe plays "I Won't Run" from his latest album The Darkness Dressed in Colored Lights live from In Your Ear studios for a WNRN member session. Learn mor...
A fine selection from my Top Album of 2021.
SONGbiscuit’s Top Album of 2020
My annual top album lists have gotten shorter over the years since creating this little blog, and this year it's the shortest list of all. There is simply one album that stands far above the rest this year. For me, the best album of 2020 is Ailm by Blackbird & Crow of Ireland.
I could not possibly describe the album any better than the review that appeared on Folk Radio UK, so I will defer to some of Mike Davies' words and recommend that you read his review in full. Ailm also appears on his Top 10 list for the year.
"Ailm is the mesmerising second album by Donegal duo Maighréad Ní Ghrásta and Stephen John Doohan, the title for which refers to the letter in Ogham. Ogham is an Early Medieval Irish alphabet and ailm is the twentieth letter which represents conifer which, in turn, is associated with healing. Founded on a search for healing, it combines Irish folklore, blues, psychedelia and Americana in a work of melodically intense and powerful gothic noir that might be described as Celtic Nick Cave or Wovenhand, steeped in darkness and populated by the souls of the lost.
"Maighréad’s vocals are, for the most part, delivered, almost declamatory style, in a heady Gaelic accent with Stephen’s guitar work, often using slide, calls the rawness of White Stripes to mind, complemented by keyboards that shift from maelstroms to quiet eddies, their work augmented by contributions on violin, cello, drums, trumpet, sax, Uillean pipes and low whistle."
Davies concludes his review — which he wrote way back in what now seems to be the prehistoric month of January — by stating that Ailm is a "towering work of transcendental emotional power that trembles with both strength and vulnerability, it’s unlikely you’ll hear anything like it this year."
Indeed, I did not hear anything like it. Not even close.