The magic number: Dan Hegarty on great 3rd albums from Irish acts

With the release of Pillow Queens' third album Name Your Sorrow, 2fm’s Dan Hegarty looks at album number three from some other Irish acts...

Roisin Murphy - Hairless Toys (PIAS, 2015)

Over its 50-minute duration, Hairless Toys manages to encapsulate so many of the highs and the lows of human emotions. Coming eight years after Roisin’s Overpowered album, it’s the sound of an artist hitting those prime creative years of their career.

From the opener Gone Fishing to the concluding track Unputdownable, it’s thoroughly engaging in every way that you could imagine. It has glorious pop tunes like Exploitation and beautiful somber moments like Exile. Hairless Toys is as complete an album as you could possibly hope to hear.

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Pugwash - Jollity (1969 Records, 2005)

Thomas Walsh had long since established himself as one of Ireland’s finest songwriters by 2005. Jollity followed 1999’s Almond Tea and ‘2002's Almanac, and saw Pugwash’s all-round ability with making music jumping up a few gears.

It's Nice To Be Nice became somewhat of an anthem, and Something New and A Rose In A Garden Of Weeds are stunning tracks. Walsh has continued to release power pop gems in the years since, the most recent being The Rest Is History under his own name in 2023.

Soak - If I Never Know You Like This Again (Rough Trade, 2022)

After winning Irish Album of the Year at the RTÉ Choice Music Prize for her debut album Before We Forgot How To Dream, Soak’s profile raised considerably. Following this with Grim Town in 2019 and If I Never Know You Like This Again in 2022, Derry’s Bridie Monds-Watson was on what you could call a self-created artistic wave.

If I Never Know You Like This Again has all the craft of the previous albums with tracks such as Baby, You’re Full Of Shit and Last July, while other songs like Neptune and Guts have an added worldliness that you can only get from touring and growing as an artist.

The Thrills - Teenager (Virgin Records, 2007)

After their breakout debut and a hugely popular sophomore album came the underrated third Thrills album, Teenager. Listening to it then and now, it’s hard to understand why this album was largely ignored and then promptly slipped into obscurity.

It contains what is arguably The Thrills’ best song The Midnight Choir. It’s by no means a one-song album, either; Should’ve Known Better and the unfortunately titled Long Forgotten Song are fine tracks, as is Nothing Changes Around Here. In retrospect perhaps the album’s lack of popularity is more a reflection of the changing musical climate at the time, because from an artistic point of view, it’s very much on song.

The Cranberries - To The Faithful Departed (Island Records, 1996)

When you look at their career as a whole, it’s easy to overlook the significance of what The Cranberries achieved in less than four years in the early and mid-1990s. Their 1993 debut album sent them into the stratosphere, the 1994 follow-up built significantly on this, and album number three solidified them as one of the bands of the decade.

Receiving the wrath of some of the media for To The Faithful Departed, The Cranberries' journey continued to flourishing regardless. Stand-out tracks include Hollywood, When You’re Gone and Free To Decide.

Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia (Partisan Records, 2022)

Like The Cranberries, Fontaines D.C. didn’t hang about in creating their first three albums. Skinty Fia landed almost three years to the day on from the release of their debut, Dogrel.

Like their previous material, it’s such a solid record with no visual/audible weak links. With the progression from album to album, you can’t help but feel that Fontaines D.C. can have a long and storied career if that’s what they want. Skinty Fia is a special album from a special band.

Ash - Free All Angels (Infectious Records, 2001)

There’s a theory that holds a degree of truth; it says that every time you release music is a comeback of sorts. Whether you agree with that or not, Ash’s Free All Angels was in every sense a comeback. Their debut album 1977 had been a huge success, but as good as the 1998 follow-up Nu-Clear Sounds was, it didn’t click with the masses.

Free All Angels has two of the band’s biggest songs on it; Burn Baby Burn and Shining Light. It captures the then four-piece at one of their highest creative peaks. Some call it their best album; but you could make a case for their debut or current album (2023’s Race The Night) for that accolade.

God Is An Astronaut - Far From Refuge (Revive Records, 2007)

God Is An Astronaut are a Wicklow-based band, but for lengthy segments of their career, they’ve been clocking up the miles/kilometres touring throughout Europe, North America, and Asia. Far From Refuge holds many of their live favourites like Tempus Horizon, Sunrise In Aries and the album’s opening track Radau.

GIAA make music that continuously reveals new layers when you listen to it, however familiar you might be with it. It’s hard to rate this against what came before or after, but Far From Refuge is without a doubt an important chapter in the band’s career.

Cathy Davey - The Nameless (Hammer Toe Records, 2010)

The Nameless was Cathy Davey’s first post-major label album, but you’d never know from listening to it. Sometimes when recording budgets are restricted, you can’t help but notice.

Tracks like Dog and In He Comes have a live feel to them, while the soulful beauty of Bad Weather is the shade to the light of Little Red, which was one of the singles. It’s an album that hasn’t been released on vinyl, but let’s hope this will happen in the coming years.

The Frank & Walters - Beauty Becomes More Than Life (Setanta Records, 1999)

If you were to look back at the career of The Frank & Walters, you could be forgiven if you missed their third album Beauty Becomes More Than Life. While it wasn’t their most successful album, it certainly features some of their best work.

As a band they’ve experienced the highs of a seemingly endless sea of people watching them at Glastonbury in 1992, to playing those small venues where everyone is almost in reach. Listening back to Beauty Becomes More Than Life 25 years on reintroduces you to songs like tracks like 7.30, Don’t Stop, along with the singles Something Happened To Me and Plenty Times. The Frank & Walters haven’t hit a dud note throughout a career that’s lasted longer than they could have possibly imagined back in those early days.

Dan Hegarty hosts The Alternative on RTÉ 2FM, Mon-Thu @ 11pm - listen back here.

The magic number: Dan Hegarty on great 3rd albums from Irish acts

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