Squarehead – High Time (12" Vinyl)

The third full album from the Dublin trio, released on Galway's Strange Brew in 2019 and their first in six years. Roy Duffy, Ian McFarlane and Ruan Van Vliet burned bright in the early 2010s with three records in three years, including 2011's brilliant Yeah Nothing debut, before stepping back for a break. High Time is the sound of them returning older, wiser and with the rough edges gilded rather than smoothed.

Recorded over lengthy sessions with producer Leslie Keye and ruthlessly road-tested, with anything that didn't belong scrapped along the way, it trades the youthful summer rush of their early records for something more autumnal. Los Paradiso bounces like Belle and Sebastian, CDHR and Morning drift into dreamy psychedelia, and After the Sun proves Duffy's knack for a hook is fully intact, with Ruadhan O'Meara of No Spill Blood adding synths throughout. One of the great quiet comebacks in Irish indie.