We Speak Music

EUGENE MCGUINNESS drops swirling epic ‘Icarus’ ahead of new album

Published

3 months ago

February 20, 2026

Don Reed

“Increasingly extolled for his knack for melody and lyrically street-savvy ways”- The Line Of Best Fit  

“A nimble lyricist and a cheerfully wordy raconteur of contemporary nightlife”- The Guardian  

“From Liverpool you get the hooks and melodies, London you get the razor sharp outlook and from Ireland comes the wistful smoky romanticism”- Drowned In Sound

“Absolutely beautiful’”– John Kennedy, Radio X

Eugene McGuinness had accepted his career in music was over. The end of his deal with Domino Records, followed by a difficult self-released album, fatherhood, and just life generally, saw his personal dreams and ambitions slowly slip towards the horizon. A period of great change, McGuinness had embraced his new work and family life, happy to leave the ugliness of the ‘music biz’ behind him. However, the absence of making music – and the joy the process brings – left a noticeable hole.

A decade on from Domino, an evolved McGuinness is back. His brand-new album, ‘Eugene McGuinness Versus the Universe’, will be released in April 2026, following the release of his affecting comeback single ‘Seascape’ and follow up track, the beautiful widescreen romance of ‘London’.

The album was recorded at Liverpool’s Docklands Speed Shop with friend and producer Gajo Paco. Encouraging spontaneity, Eugene, Gajo and a host of old friends and acquaintances were ‘feeling it out’ along the way, trusting the process and welcoming a series of ‘happy accidents’ to contribute to the record’s warm and organic sound.

Of Irish heritage, the idiosyncratic McGuinness began crafting songs in his teens and gained recognition with debut EP ‘The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinness’ – released in 2007. His self-titled debut album was released in 2008 on Domino Records followed by ‘Glue’ (2009, as ‘Eugene and The Lizards’), ‘The Invitation to the Voyage’ in 2012 and ‘Chroma’ (2014). ‘Suburban Gothic’ (2018) was released independently and marked his departure from Domino Records.

‘Eugene McGuinness Versus the Universe’ picks up where ‘The Early Learnings of Eugene McGuinness’’, left off. A return to playfulness, rawness, and mysterious off-kilter pop from a more mature Eugene McGuinness, the album is another fine addition to McGuinness’ discography and reflects his evolution as an artist – unafraid to experiment and never playing to the gallery, following a tradition of songwriters – Bob Dylan, Shane MacGowan, Randy Newman, Rufus Wainwright – with voices and interior universes that are all their own.

Eclectic, personal, experimental and collaborative and flaunting McGuinness’ compelling gift for melody, the new LP spans a range of styles, from the intimate atmospheres of ‘Drag’, to the Gospel-infused ‘There’s Always Next Time’. The next single to be lifted from the record, ‘Icarus’, features McGuinness’ trademark wry lyrical flair with lush vocal harmonies, a bevy of vintage guitars and sweeping strings coalescing into a swirling epic, which sees McGuinness correlating his life to the legend of Icarus flying too close to the sun.

‘Eugene McGuinness Versus the Universe’, which is being released via Docklands Speed Shop’s label and fellow Liverpool based outfit Mellowtone Records, sees McGuinness coming full circle in many ways. The very day he signed his first record deal with Domino, McGuinness was booked to play a show for Dave McTague’s Mellowtone Records in a tiny café in Liverpool. The two Docklands Speed Shop founders Gajo Paco & Charlie Mullan were in attendance at the show that night. In addition, they were members of the legendary Derry/Liverpool band The Prelude – a band who also played Mellowtone shows and shared the stage with McGuinness on many occasions. A testament to the tight knit scene and ‘village’ mentality of Liverpool’s music community, ‘Eugene McGuinness Verses the Universe’ is the result of long-lasting friendships cemented together by the mutual need for creativity and collaboration.

Eugene McGuinness will launch the new album with a special live performance / signing at Rough Trade, Liverpool on 21^st March 2026. Get tickets here: https://shorturl.at/GviYy

& Culturlann Ui Chanain, Derry, on 28^th March 2026. Tickets: https://shorturl.at/fIUWk

We Speak Music

Nick Mulvey releases live album ‘Dark Harvest Live’

Published

6 hours ago

May 22, 2026

Don Reed

There’s something quietly radical about Nick Mulvey. His songs don’t shout for attention, yet they demand it. His music has always felt like a slow-burning invitation, to listen more closely, to step outside the noise, to feel, even when it’s hard. In a world brimming with distraction he cuts through, offering something rare: music that is unafraid to go deep.

With his most recent albums, ‘Dark Harvest Pt.1’ and ‘Dark Harvest Pt.2’, released via his own Supernatural Records label, Mulvey finds himself in a new state of artistic independence and empowerment. The albums saw Mulvey working alongside a cast of world-class collaborators, including the legendary producer Jimmy Hogarth (Amy Winehouse, Paolo Nutini), the boundary-pushing Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno, Jon Hopkins), and the globally renowned Parisi Brothers (Ed Sheeran, Fred Again) and were born out of the catharsis of a tough few years that Mulvey has undergone recently in his personal life.

“For me Dark Harvest Pt.1 tracks the descent and grief that hit me in the last three years, during the losses and challenges I faced”, Mulvey explains. “Often brutal, these years have tenderised me, as I know they have others. Making this music carried me through. Dark Harvest Pt.2 is the first fruits after a deep winter, songs that tell of a new creation and a clarified faith”, he further reveals.

The next phase of this process is ‘Dark Harvest Live’, a gorgeous live offering. The album captures what anyone who has seen Nick Mulvey live will recognise, the feeling of a room that has briefly, genuinely, become one thing. With his ability to weave an experience that is felt as much as it is heard, his live performances don’t just entertain, they transcend to create a chorus of unity, a communion of sound and feeling. Through his intricate guitar figures, that seem to spiral endlessly and serve as a vehicle for his words, few artists so seamlessly bridge the sacred and the everyday.

“Dark Harvest is about surrender and what grows after the breaking. These live recordings are that same journey, only with an audience in the room sharing it. I’m proud of these shows. Something was working and I wanted there to be a recording of it. I’m feeling fortunate that I get to go out in May and do it all over again“, says Mulvey.

Mulvey’s music carries the poetic weight of Leonard Cohen, the introspective fragility of Nick Drake, and the hypnotic, polyrhythmic pulse of West African guitar masters like Ali Farka Touré. From his early days studying ethnomusicology in London, to guitar in Havana and then onto co-founding the Mercury-nominated Portico Quartet, Mulvey’s journey has never been conventional. His shimmering debut solo album, ‘First Mind’ (2014), established him as a standout force in modern music—earning him a second Mercury Prize nomination and acclaim for his hypnotic, finger-picked guitar work and deeply poetic lyricism. His follow-up, ‘Wake Up Now’ (2017), expanded his sonic and thematic scope, weaving global rhythms, environmental consciousness, and a call for collective awakening into anthems of hope and action. With ‘New Mythology’ (2022), Mulvey delved further still into the spiritual and mythic dimensions of songcraft, delivering compositions that felt at once ancient and urgent, intimate and universal.

Onstage Nick’s journey has taken him from sell out European and US solo tours to The Pyramid stage at Glastonbury and London’s The Royal Albert Hall and Hammersmith Apollo. Offstage, Mulvey is a devoted father of two, recently returned to the UK after years living abroad, and quietly in the middle of one of the most creatively fertile periods of his life.