Aoife Doyle: Infinitely Clear – A gorgeous heart-warming gem

Aoife Doyle is an artist on a steep upward curve. Her first two albums, This Time the Dream's On Me (2013) and Clouds (2017) were well-received and charted the Wicklow-born vocalist's progress from a fine interpreter of other people's songs to a composer and lyricist who was beginning to find her own voice.

Infinitely Clear, however, is on a whole other level, a gorgeous confection of jazz, folk, soul and country that will surely bring her the attention she deserves and bears comparison – in sound, in finesse, and in its potential to make a star of its creator – with Norah Jones’s debut album. Songs like They Say, Love Conquers All and Strength to be Strong, already released as singles and getting plenty of mainstream domestic airplay, glow with inner warmth and conviction, with more than enough to satisfy the heart and the hips.

Talented musicians

As before, Doyle has gathered around her a group of talented musicians – including her classy regular trio of pianist Johnny Taylor, bassist Andrew Csibi and drummer Dominic Mullan – and brought them into the House of Horns studio in Dublin where producer and master saxophonist Michael Buckley has worked his magic. With gorgeous horn arrangements from Buckley and trumpeter Ronan Dooney, delicate backing vocals from Margot Daly, and further layers of lushness from organist Justin Carroll and guitarist Jack Maher, Infinitely Clear is a heart-warming gem, a classic in the making from an artist who has found her groove and, one senses, is about to be huge.