Driven Snow: Mother of Christ (Driven Snow Music) ★★★★☆

“Everybody knows that I dragged you down. You were going somewhere, then I came around,” Kieran McGuinness sings in harmony with his wife, Emily Aylmer. So begins the follow-up album to A Kind of Dreaming, Driven Snow’s sublime debut, from 2024, but if there is any conflict in married life, in parenting, in doing the best you can to prevent life from sucking you dry, then McGuinness and Aylmer keep it under wraps. What we discern might be surface tension, but what lies beneath are gentle pop songs so perfectly structured, deft and, in their way, wise that calm immediately arrives. Will you hear better songs this year than Knots, I Wasn’t Looking for You, Swallow in the Eaves and Dawn Chorus? Unlikely.

David Geraghty: Komorebi (Bohemia Records) ★★★★☆

David Geraghty once more scratches a singular creative itch that isn’t necessarily soothed by his work as a full-time member of Bell X1. The clue to his new solo album’s persuasive sonic mood board is its title, the expressive Japanese word describing sunlight peeking through a leafy covering of trees. The aural equivalent is similarly gorgeous and elusive. The influences of David Bowie’s sleek soul years and Prince’s slinky funk are apparent on Normal Two Point Zero, Happy to Pretend, What Is Real and Make Love My Enemy, but Geraghty is intelligent enough to avoid being snagged by obvious redesigns. People inclined towards smart music, classy songs and lyrics that “iron out some of life’s wrinkles” are well served here.

Andy Irvine: Devoted (Songs of Woody Guthrie) (The Last Music Co) ★★★☆☆

When Andy Irvine discovered the music of Woody Guthrie he switched from studying classical guitar to playing the mandolin (and tackling the harmonica). With Devoted, Irvine is repaying the pivotal influence of a songwriter who brought him to Ireland and helped him to become a crucial figure himself in the development of Irish folk and traditional music. Here, then, is a 30-years-in-the-making record, 12 songs throughout which Irvine interweaves Guthrie’s words with singular Irish styles, most notably with the aid of his friend Dónal Lunny. Other high-calibre transcultural musicians here include Michael McGoldrick, Bruce Molsky, John Doyle, Rens van der Zalm and Nikola Parov.

Last Apollo: I’ll Walk Towards You (Self-released) ★★★☆☆

Looking to capture the right sound for her debut album, Last Apollo, aka Lucy Rice, decided to return from London to Dublin (with a bag of her producer’s microphones) and set up new recording sessions in familiar rooms – “the place where it all started,” she says. The outcome of this homecoming is a strong suite of songs that blend heartbreak, self-care and courteous honesty (narratives formed by words appropriated from love letters) with left-of-centre chamber pop performed with equal measures of ambivalence and focus.

Sorcha Richardson: Draw the Outline (Faction Records) ★★★★☆

Sorcha Richardson’s third album travels, within several listens, from slow-burning to volcano hot. The accelerant is Richardson’s increasing skills as a songwriter. Patience is advised, however, as the leisurely, somewhat low-key songs take time to lodge in the head. Once there, they demand squatters’ rights; beauties such as Grenadine, Illinois Again, Ellen Forever, Fake Venice, Adam (Pacing in the Park) and The Video capture the attention with euphoric melodies and tender lyricism that make you think twice, if not more, about listening to something else.