Noah & the whale

The Academy, Dublin Sun 9pm €23 0818-719300

The Academy, Dublin Sun 9pm €23 0818-719300

Thank God for Noah and the Whale! The UK indie folkies could well have landed themselves in a pickle by now if they hadn't upped their game with their recent third album, Last Night on Earth(named after a collection of poems by Charles Bukowski).

Charlie Fink and friends were previously often pigeonholed alongside Mumford Sons and Laura Marling as the co-leaders in the chummy UK folk/pop scene, but their new album changed all that by being far crunchier and more adventurous than first two ( Peaceful, The World Lays Me Downand The First Days of Spring).

Taking an altogether more pop/rock route (akin, funnily enough, to a blend of Prefab Sproutand Bruce Hornsby), Last Night on Earth positions Noah the Whale in a space all by themselves. Fans of their earlier knees-up indie-folk songs might baulk at the change of direction, but Fink seems to know what he's doing, and what he's doing is very good indeed.

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Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea

Tony Clayton-Lea is a contributor to The Irish Times specialising in popular culture