LID wins Best Irish Live Album of the Decade

[cw]

From IrishCentral January 2, 2010.

The votes are in on IrishCentral's dual music polls — one for Best Irish-American Album of the Decade, and the other for Best Irish Album of the Decade.

The contest drew thousands of votes — as well as the biggest response to any IrishCentral poll in any category or on any topic.

The Best Irish-American Album of the Decade drew the most votes, and came right down to the wire. But in the end, Black 47's "Trouble in the Land" came in on top with 37% of the votes, compared with close runner-up, Enter the Haggis' "Casualties of Retail," with 32 percent.

The next pair was also a battle to the end, between Pierce Turner's "3 Minute World" and The Prodigals' "Needs Must When the Devil Drives." The final tally: Turner nabbed third place with 15% and The Prodigals came in fourth with 11%.

"Blackout," by Dropkick Murphys, came in fifth and last with just 3 percent of the vote.

The final results in the Best Irish Album of the Decade was something of a surprise, with four albums facing off against the favorite, U2's "All That You Can't Leave Behind."

But in a major upset, the world-touring, top-selling U2 came in third with just 17 percent of the vote.

"VH1 Presents The Corrs: Live From Dublin" handily took the top honors with a commanding 43 percent of the vote. Saw Doctors' "The Cure" was a solid second, with 32 percent.

The fight to stay out of last place toggled back and forth throughout the run of the contest, but in the end, Afro Celt Sound System's "Further in Time" pulled in 3 percent of the vote to put controversial singer Sinead O'Connor's "Throw Down Your Arms" at the bottom, with 2%

[DazedOblivion]

That's really quite an amazing feat and testament to the fan loyalty to the Corrs that a band now in its 5th year in absentia beat out U2. Many contests tend to be weighted in favour of musical acts currently or recently active. It seems to me that the VH1 album was under-appreciated in the U.S. - it never caught my notice here in America when it was released - and it was a harder album to acquire outside America. Remarkable!!

[cw]

Definitely a case where "our troops" mobilised and it is indeed a tribute to the loyalty & dedication of the fanbase.

Having said that; I've come around to the view LID WAS a true artistic highlight in the Corrs discography. To my mind, it did captur the band at its best .... Andrea never sounded nearly as good since then. Yes, there aren't many tracks and some are technically "rehashes" but, except for Little Wing, .... oh what beautiful rehashes they were !!

Mitch Froom WAS the ideal producer for the Corrs & Fiachra Trench the ideal collaborator & accompanist. The IFO were marvellous on Unplugged; here they absolutely "rocked". Yes, there were a number of covers but WTSGB, Summer Wine, Ruby Tuesday & Only Love Can Break Your Heart are some of the best covers I've ever heard.

My one reservation will always be Little Wing, which strikes me as being a "make work" to justify Ronnie Wood's presence. To be honest, the Corrs had already made their statement with this number with their TOC version with the Chieftains & their unspeakably beautiful Unplugged version. This version strikes me as superfluous.

My prference would have been either:
1. Do a live "let her rip" version of Old Town with the orchestra, Ronan Dooney & Andrea & an equally crazy audience. OR
2. An acoustic recording of All The Love In The World. When the production was stripped away from this number & taken "live & acoustic" on the IB tours; this song became not only a showstopper but one of the greatest showcases for the Corr sisters harmonies. They performed this with an orchestra at BBC2 and it soared ... begging the question as to whether an acoustic/orchestral recording should have been considered.

[DazedOblivion]

I love both the MTV and VH1 live albums with Mitchell Froom. The live albums put on display the great musicianship. I'm always hoping that the VH1 videos will be released as a feature on some future DVD from the Corrs.

I'm sure that having Ronnie Wood and Bono involved was because of the friendships with the Corrs, but I'm sure it also helped that these two were/are well known personalities in the States. There's such a chemistry between Andrea and Bono, including vocals. I owe my becoming a big fan of the Corrs during the summer of 2004 to the Bono/Corrs duet "When The Stars Go Blue." And "Ruby Tuesday" was a nice result of Ronnie Wood's involvement. It's one of the many great covers on the album. The Corrs certainly excel at performing covers; I think that every cover they have done is superb with just the one exception of "The Winner Takes It All", which we discussed in another topic.