10. GILLA BAND
Gilla Band’s third studio album Most Normal marked a refinement and continuation of the group’s noise abstracting sound in 2022. While their live shows maintain an all-encompassing mood and tone.
9. CMAT
CMAT’s rise to prominence seems to have been written in the stars, as the artists’ seminal debut If My Wife New I’d Be Dead and sold-out Olympia Theatre shows serving as the natural culmination of this emergence.
8. JUST MUSTARD
With Heart Under Just Mustard harnessed the depth and power of their music within a defined record that heightened the impact of the group’s dynamic sound.
7. FONTAINES D.C.
Sold out shows in the Iveagh Gardens as well as Vicar Street, punctuated Fonatines D.C. ascendance into an artistic imperial phase as the band released the career defining Skinty Fia.
6. ELAINE HOWLEY
In 2022 Elaine Howley made her presence felt with her first solo outing The Distance Between Heart and Mouth, a record that found Howley exploring atmospherically driven musical territory with profound effect.
5. THUMPER
Delusions of Grandeur delivered on all the build that came before it. Thumper’s debut unleashed the band to a wider world both sonically and artistically.
4. CLARA TRACEY
Clara Tracey’s 2022 came to the fore with the release of her debut album Black Forest, introducing a songwriter with a singular voice, vivid stylization, and self-made sound.
3. PRETTY HAPPY
2022 was a breakthrough for year for Pretty Happy, with their attention-grabbing E.P. Echo Boy and single ‘Salami’ cementing the trio as a hot prospect for 2023.
2. PASTICHE
Pastiche was one the rising pop-star of 2022, bursting onto the Irish music scene with a string of banging singles that featured on her Freak Show Symphony E.P. Special shout out to ‘Disco Junkie’.
1. SAIGE
The continued evolution of Saige came to fruition in 2022 as Saige made moves sonically with the ‘Sparks’ and recent single ‘Outgrown’, both of which found the artist carving out her own space in the hotly contested Irish pop scene.
