HERE we go again – once more into the breach, and so on.
For the 21st consecutive year, the Choice Music Prize (which has had, for more than several years, RTÉ as its title sponsor) will do the best it can to celebrate the finest in Irish recorded music.
The annual event has had its share of critics over the past two decades, but since its inception in 2005, it has been (and is) undeniably one of the Irish music industry highlights of the calendar year.
It has developed, by necessity as much as by inclination, from being solely album-oriented, latterly adding four sub-categories - Irish Artist of the Year, Irish Breakthrough Artist, Classic Irish Album, and Irish Song of the Year - that have broadened its reach and, no doubt, kept RTÉ happy in terms of widening its choices for radio play.
Chosen from a shortlist of ten albums by a panel of eleven Irish music media professionals and industry experts, the Irish Album of the Year award remains the primary focus.
This is great news for music acts that consider albums as a defining element of their artistic expression.
And besides, who doesn’t like to win a bulging bag of cash worth €10,000 (metaphorically, anyway, as it’s more a huge cardboard cheque presented on the night, and a digital transfer into a bank account a short time after).
The Irish Album of the Year prize fund, which hasn’t increased in the history of Choice (not a criticism, merely an observation - €10,000 remains a significant sum for the vast majority of shortlisted acts), is provided by the Irish Music Rights Organisation (IMRO) and the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA), while all shortlisted acts will receive a specially commissioned award.
It must be said that even after 21 years, the event is viewed by most Irish musicians as a positive thing and by most music lovers as a rich indication of how healthy the Irish music scene is and continues to be.
Anyway, let’s get down to business.
Below is the alphabetical list of the Irish Album of the Year 2025 nominees.
The Irish Post gives a brief critical summation of the album and its chances of winning on the night.
Ultimately, the judging panel will decide, but as this writer knows only too well (full declaration: I was Chairperson of the Choice Music Prize Judging Panel for nine consecutive years, from 2010-2018), they don’t always make the right decision...
Amble: Reverie
Unless you like music that is as soothing as a hot whiskey on a freezing day, Reverie contains little more than deftly played fireside tunes brimming over with melancholy and memories. In the past 18 months, Robbie Cunningham, Oisín McCaffrey, and Ross McNerney have struck so much gold with their folk-tinged pop/pop-tinged folk songs that they have attained superstar status. Such adulation for their smoothly unfolding music is interesting, but truth be told, there is far more nuanced and creative Irish-hued music out there.
Statistics: This is Amble’s first time on the Choice Music Prize list.
Chances of winning: The songs are surely too insipid to sway the judges. 5/10.
Bricknasty: Black’s Law
Dublin-based Bricknasty blend jazz, R&B, hip-hop, spoken word, and what can only be described as ‘vibes’ into a melting pot of music. Some tracks (Go Get That Blade, Bastard, 7th Floor) come across as wilfully scattered, others not so much (Bombs, with singer Aby Coulibaly, and the starkly unrepresentative instrumental/spoken word, Eleanor Plunkett). Overall, though, you’re left scratching your head as to how this fragmented mess of an album got on the list when too many others of far more consequence didn’t.
Statistics: This is Bricknasty’s first time on the Choice Music Prize list.
Chances of winning: Stranger things have happened, but unless a miraculous about-face occurs, this won’t get anywhere close. 2/10.
Joshua Burnside: Teeth of Time
Belfast-based folk singer-songwriter Joshua Burnside has a reputation for excellence. In his mid-30s, he has never taken the easy way out when it came to songwriting, fusing Americana, world music, electronica, and a certain undefinable style that threatens to fall into the abyss of experimentation but halts just in time. Teeth of Time sometimes teeters too close to the brink, but delving into the imaginative songs, you’ll find Burnside’s intent to be as decent as you could hope for.
Statistics: This is Joshua Burnside’s first time on the Choice Music Prize list.
Chances of winning: An intriguing collection of songs, but it isn’t a winner. 6/10
CMAT: Euro-Country
County Meath’s CMAT has achieved what few people thought she ever would: authentic commercial success, widespread critical acclaim, and a media profile that has seen her grace magazine covers from Ireland and the UK to Europe and the US. There is no doubt that she is Ireland’s next international success pop music story, and based on the quality of her third album, no one should be surprised. With songs that display shards of a roguish humour and a rounded (and rare) sense of self, we can’t see any other winner.
Statistics: This is CMAT’s third time on the Choice Music Prize list. She was previously nominated in 2022 for her debut album, If My Wife New I’d Be Dead (which won) and in 2023 for her second album, Crazymad, for Me.
Chances of winning: The only thing that might prevent this from winning is the present ubiquity of the songs and of CMAT herself. That aside, it’s a certified bet. 10/10.
Dove Ellis: Blizzard
Judging by the reception to 22-year-old Galway-born Dove Ellis’s debut album, it won’t be long before he is a household name – a Choice win could make that journey smoother and quicker. That said, Ellis is so much predisposed towards Radiohead, Elliot Smith, and Jeff Buckley that his songs soon come across as far too familiar for their own good. In fairness, many debuts can be like that, but there is a distinct impression with this album that critics are falling over themselves to be the first to say how amazing Ellis is. He isn’t. Not yet anyway. Let’s see what his third or fourth album is like, eh?
Statistics: This is Dove Ellis’s first time on the Choice Music Prize list.
Chances of winning: Good songs, but the whiff of familiarity about them is overpowering. 5/10.
Junior Brother: The End
Kerry’s Ronan Kealy is one of Ireland’s most intriguing songwriters. He doesn’t care too much (if at all) about being played on daytime radio, and because of this, he can do whatever he wants. Released on Pete Doherty’s label Strap Originals, The End is (perhaps ironically) a continuation of Kealy’s fascinating deconstruction of folk music. If he used nominal ‘rock’ instrumentation, this album could easily land in the post-rock zone, but the presence of flute, uilleann pipes, cello, flute, harmonium, and percussion marks it down as folk, but not the kind Amble would deliver. This isn’t music as balm but rather exploration and confrontation. You won’t be humming anything from The End, but that’s a large part of its strength.
Statistics: This is Junior Brother’s first time on the Choice Music Prize list.
Chances of winning: We’d love to see it win, but what on earth would RTÉ think? 8/10.
Just Mustard: We Were Just Here
Noise rock that experiments with the kind of severe gravity that makes the collected works of Samuel Beckett read like Beano annuals, this banger-filled album is a terrific mood piece. Think insidious melodies covered in Voldemort’s cloak and you’re halfway there. Plus, The Cure’s Robert Smith loves them, and that’s good enough for us.
Statistics: This is Just Mustard’s second time on the Choice Music Prize list. They were previously nominated in 2022 for their debut album, Heart Under.
Chances of winning: It deserves to win. 9/10.
pôt-pot: Warsaw 480km
If trippy krautrock and shimmering, hypnotic, psychoactive melodies are your thing, then take a listen to the debut album by one of Ireland’s most innovative new-ish bands. It’s very, very fab…
Statistics: This is pôt-pot’s first time on the Choice Music Prize list.
Chances of winning: A cracker of an album that just might do the business. 8/10.
Maria Somerville: Luster
Connemara-based Maria Somerville uses the rugged, inspiring wilderness of her native landscapes to infuse her lithe shoegaze and slowly shifting postpunk with creative roughage. She wrote and recorded most of this album at home, near Lough Corrib, with prominent input from Lankum’s Ian Lynch (the track Violet is beautifully underscored with Lynch’s uilleann pipe drones), and Dublin-based Australian musician Margie Jean Lewis (the track Flutter is enhanced with her violin playing).
Statistics: This is Maria Somerville’s first time on the Choice Music Prize list.
Chances of winning: Somerville’s work is superb, but it has niche appeal. 7/10.
SPRINTS: All That Is Over
The Dublin band follow their excellent debut, Letter to Self, with a far more confident collection of songs that channel their fierce energy into more slow-burn-turns-scorching-heat tracks. Still running, still in the race, still on track for greatness.
Statistics: This is Sprints’ second time on the Choice Music Prize list. They were previously nominated in 2024 for their debut album, Letter to Self.
Chances of winning: A distinct possibility, but will the judges let loose? 8/10.
The 2026 winners will be announced on Thursday, March 5 at Vicar St, Dublin (with an exclusive RTÉ 2FM broadcast hosted by Beta Da Silva). The show will feature live performances from some of the shortlisted acts.
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