Date: January 1 to January 13

With the first two weeks of 2019 behind us, I think it's time to get down to some New Year's resolutions. This is one of them. I've been working on Genius Ireland for some time now and it was hardly well-organised. To change that, I've decided to publish a project update every two weeks. In this I will describe what happened project-wise and what happened music-wise (new singles or albums that dropped).

Goals & Smaller Projects

Every project needs some objectives to work towards so let's get to it.

Transfer the spreadsheet to Genius.
Chloe Conlon and I have transcribed and tagged quite some artists already but the spreadsheet we used to keep track of it doesn't really work anymore. It's got around 800 entries and the Google Sheets we used is terribly slow because of this. I'm taking the Country Artists Directory as my inspiration but I'll make some changes to better reflect the needs of this project. More news to follow...

Finish the introductory page.
I've got the drafts of a welcome page laying around but the actual page still needs to be finished.

Transcribing.
Nialler 9 is one of the best ways to stay up to date with Irish music and, as almost every music site does, they released a playlist listing their 50 best tracks of 2018. Some of the songs will already be on Genius, some will not. I plan to have transcribed all remaining songs in the playlist before the next project update. Status: ?/50

The RTÉ Choice Music Prize of 2018 is approaching as well. 10 albums have been shortlisted for the 2018 Irish Album of the Year award. I plan to transcribe all songs & albums not yet on Genius before the award ceremony on the 7th of March. When the shortlist of songs nominated for Song of the Year is revealed January 30th, I will include these in my efforts as well. The shortlisted albums are:
- The Academic - Tales From The Backseat
- Delorentos - True Surrender
- Just Mustard - Wednesday
- Kojaque - Deli Daydreams
- O Emperor - Jason
- Lisa O'Neill - Heard A Long Gone Song
- Saint Sister - Shape of Silence
- Rejjie Snow - Dear Annie
- Villagers - The Art Of Pretending To Swim
- Wyvern Lingo - Wyvern Lingo

The Release Calender for 2019 is live as well and it's going to be a spectacular year with releases by Hozier, Dermot Kennedy, Walking On Cars, Picture This and much more.

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There are a couple of transcription projects I was working on and then got distracted from. I plan to finish these some time but they're relatively low priority projects.
- Other Voices 15: Other Voices is a yearly event that features a (mostly) Irish artists. I started transcribing it a while ago but never finished. Most lyrics of the compilation are already on Genius so this should be easy. Progress: 14/25 pages transcribed
- Ireland Laid Bare: I'll be honest, I only wanted to transcribe White Piano by Aine Cahill but then I accidentally shelled the entire album (as you do). Progress: 1/16 pages transcribed
- Street Lights - Street Lights: Street Lights is a collective of Irish artists who collaborated on the charity single Homeward Bound. The profits of the album go to organisations combating homelessness in Ireland. Progress: 6/13 pages transcribed

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New Releases

The year is off to a good start with Dermot Kennedy dropping his new single For Island Fires and Family January 4th as part of a compilation of already released material. His debut album "is in the works" according to his Facebook page.
Personal favourite Talos dropped The Light Upon Us, the second single of his new album Far Out Dust along with the tracklist.
Second single, new album is also applicable for ZASKA: It's Ridiculous is a ridiculously good song (I had to make this joke and the best part is, it's not even a lie) with an equally ridiculous music video (seriously check it out. There might be some familiar faces…)
For Westlife fans there's also good news: after some 8 years of silence, we now get to enjoy Hello My Love with the promise of a new album coming this year.
This Friday Picture This released a new single for their upcoming album MDRN LV: If You Wanna Be Loved is bright, energetic and promises lots of good for the album.
I'd love to spend more time describing all releases but I simply haven't got that time so here's the list of all releases

Albums & EPs
Bobby Basil - Isaac Nelson

Singles
Talos - The Light Upon Us
Dermot Kennedy - For Island Fires and Family
ZASKA - It's Ridiculous (Ft. Louise Gaffney)
Westlife - Hello My Love
Picture This - If You Wanna Be Loved
SOAK - Knock Me Off My Feet
Gadget and the Cloud - Too Soon To Say
Marcus Woods - Saturn V
Hozier - Say My Name
whenyoung - Never Let Go
Wild Youth - Making Me Dance
True Tides - The Answer
Little Butler - Coming Home
Nimrod - Like This
James Joys - Fugitive Wound
Rosie Carney - Your Love Is Holy
The Murder Capital - Feeling Fades
Evans Junior - France (Ft. Txmmy Rose)
Liers - Elixir
Oscar Blue - Auburn
PEACHFACE - You Never Saw Me Dance
Ruth Mac - Speed
Sun Mahshene - Come Alive (Leave This City)
Sylk - All In Ur Head (Ft. Darragh Locke)
WOB! - Falling With Me (Ft. Dubh Lee)
Peco - Monster