The Choice Music Prize had its inaugural award ceremony last year, it was created to celebrate and reward the best album released by an Irish artist each year. As opposed to the Meteor Awards which is predominantly voted for by texts from thirteen and fourteen year olds, the Choice Music Prize is judged by a panel of 12 judges drawn from the cream of the Irish Media. The Prize is sponsored by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA). The winner of the Choice Music Prize receives €10,000, and specially-commissioned award provided by the Recorded Artists and Performers Ltd (RAAP). ’13 songs’ by Julie Feeney, an album she recorded in her bedroom was the surprise winner of last years choice music prize. Since then she has enjoyed major success signing a worldwide distribution deal with Sony BMG and continues to have massively increasing sales.

Prior to this years awards in February Analogue spoke to Jim Carroll, music journalist with the Irish Times and non voting chairperson of the Choice Music Prize. He explained the aims of the newly formed Awards ,”the job of the choice music prize we’ve kind of given it is to highlight and amplify Irish music, it’s basically to look at a years worth of Irish music from January to December in any given year and just pick the best albums from that.”

The judges are all expert music critics who are drawn from several national radio stations, newspapers and magazines. This year the judges included John Caddell - Phantom FM, Stuart Clark - Hot Press, Alison Curtis - Today FM, Neil Dunphy - Sunday Tribune, Sinead Gleeson - The Ticket, Rick O’Shea - 2FM, Nick Kelly - Irish Independent/Billboard, Mike Knightson - Live 95 Limerick, Padraic Killeen - The Irish Examiner, Eamon Sweeney - Foggy Notions, Tanya Sweeney - The Star and Jonny Tiernan - Alternative Ulster. So it’s a quite impressive line up and really represents the broader voice of the Media in Ireland showing how what an honour it is just to be short listed at all.

Of about 180 Irish albums which were released last year each judge picks ten of their favourite and combines them with the other judges lists to create an overall shortlist of ten. This year the short list included David Kitt, Messiah J & the Expert, Si Shroeder, Duke Special, Fionn Regan, Snow Patrol, Republic of Loose, the Immediate, Director and the Divine Comedy. So ok of course you recognise The Divine Comedy, Snow Patrol, David Kitt, Messiah J & the Expert and Republic of Loose but who are the rest?

Fionn Regan’s album ‘the End of History’ is a beautiful collection of gentle and melodic songs that each tell their own quirky little story. It would be easy to blandly label him a singer-songwriter and stick him in the same category as the many other Irish has-beens but Regan’s music has so much more to offer. His songs are witty anecdotes with poetic vision reminiscent of Bob Dylan with the same kind of appreciation for little things as Patrick Kavanagh. I know every year critics proclaim someone as the new Dylan, well this year I’m going to follow suit and declare that it’s Fionn Regan. In April he’ll be back from a tour of Australia with Damien Rice and will begin an Irish tour, check him out then.

The Immediate are Louth’s answer to an early form of Radiohead, their debut album ‘In Towers and Clouds’ sets them far apart from other Irish guitar based rock bands. The Immediate are a dynamic four-piece band with four vocalists, three drummers, three guitarists, and three bassists who haphazardly share the task of song-writing to brilliant effect. The song ‘A Ghost in this House’ is a tribute to their talents, merging choppy reverb laced guitars, eerie moog synths and several vocal harmonies. These guys are a solid band who don’t need to rely on the hype or pigeon holing genres of NME or Hotpress to make a splash, their live shows and original style of music carry them a long way.

Duke Special is the brilliant folk troubadour from Belfast who has made the shortlist for the second year in a row, this time for his album ‘Songs from the Deep Forest’. He may get a few odd looks with his matted dread locks, black eyeliner and Victorian styled dress sense but beyond that he is genius who can craft a beautiful heartfelt melody and deliver it with so much soul and conviction that it’s almost moving. An original songwriter with his own sound is a rarity in this day and age and it’s only right that his album is recognised alongside the other great Irish albums of last year.

Si Schroeder is the mastermind behind the 2006 album ‘Coping Mechanisms’ which has been hailed as the greatest electronic album Ireland has ever produced. Merging soft vocals, gentle percussion, ambient synths and cleverly arranged electro beats Schroeder creates an emotive force to be reckoned with. Live performances may seem like a challenge to someone like Schroeder who uses a lot of samples, but he effortlessly pulls it off with devastating consequences where some of his peers such as Four Tet have fallen flat.
‘We Thrive on Big Cities’ in case it slipped through you musical radar is the debut platinum selling album by Malahide boys Director released on Atlantic Records last year. Over the last year they’ve been gaining a lot of momentum, wining a Meteor Award and recently supported Razorlight. The lads are no strangers to Trinity, having studied here and won the battle of the bands going on to play the Trinity Ball in 2005. They’ll be back at the Ball again this year to give yet another great live performance. Their new single ‘Be With You’ will be released on the 11^th of May. See the Trinity Ball feature for more info.

Eight of the ten acts nominated for the prize preformed on the night of the awards ceremony in a sold out Vicar Street, unfortunately both Snow Patrol and Fionn Regan couldn’t make it due to tour commitments. Where else are you going to see eight of the most talented Irish groups on the stage in the space of two hours, the Choice Music Prize is definitely ambitious and unique in more than one sense! Highlights of the night included spirited performances by Si Schroeder, David Kitt and Duke Special. While they were all playing the judges were locked in a room in a secret location (the pub across the road), debating over who should win it. I spoke to Rick O’Shea afterwards and he said it was one hell of an ordeal and digressed that the votes were split 5 against 7 in the end. He couldn’t tell me but I suspect that Duke Special was the contender that narrowly missed out.

In the end there could only be one winner and the Divine Comedy aka Neil Hannon took everyone by surprise scooping the prestigious Prize for his latest album, ‘Victory for the comic muse’. Hannon was truly surprised himself on the night to win but deeply grateful to his peers in the music industry for recognising his achievements. While Hannon spends his prize money on a new kitchen, the other nominees hope that the publicity surrounding the Choice Music Prize will give their album a second wind and maybe open some more doors of opportunity. No doubt it will. As Jim Carroll simply put it, “It’s really just about identifying some good albums of last year and giving them some extra time in the spotlight.”

Brendan McGuirk is the editor of Analogue, and former Chair of Trinity FM.
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