Our Rating 9/10

In a culture obsessed with noise, Dotts O’Connor chooses stillness.

The alternative folk songwriter has built his reputation on restraint. Rooted in rural landscapes and the emotional weight they carry, his work inhabits the space between connection and isolation, routine and longing. Nothing feels forced. Nothing feels ornamental. His songs sound lived in rather than performed.

His new four track EP, Jodie, deepens that instinct. Recorded live at The Meadow Studios in Wicklow, engineered by Rian Trench and mixed by Ken McCabe, the project leans fully into atmosphere. You can hear the room breathe. Brian Dillon’s keys hover subtly. Paul Kenny’s percussion is patient and purposeful. McCabe’s bass and electronics remain supportive rather than dominant. The production never intrudes. It listens.

What truly distinguishes this release, however, is Dotts’ remarkable relationship with the guitar. He renders it as muse rather than mere instrument. Texture becomes narrative. Space becomes tension. His playing favours touch over flash, tone over theatrics. It is a masterclass in restraint. A stupendous musician, he understands that silence is not absence but architecture.

Conceptually, Jodie centres on a single middle aged man navigating loneliness in rural isolation. Surrounded by open land yet emotionally closed off, the character’s life unfolds through repetition, memory and the quiet ache of wanting connection without knowing how to ask for it. There is no dramatic arc. No engineered redemption. Just presence.

“Fail We May” opens with a meditation on risk and resilience. It resists grand gestures, instead embracing vulnerability as a necessary step toward growth. Failure is framed not as catastrophe but as teacher.

“I Saw It Too” shifts the lens to Boyle in County Roscommon and its early 2000s UFO folklore. With gentle humour, the track explores the importance of shared belief and community. In an era where isolation often comes disguised as connectivity, the song offers a subtle commentary on belonging.

The title track, “Jodie”, inspired by a fleeting encounter on a rural road, captures the quiet tragedy of lives lived parallel rather than intersecting. The melody carries softness. The themes carry weight.

Closing track “The One And Only” introduces movement. An impulsive trip to Madrid becomes a snapshot of temporary freedom, a reminder that spontaneity can disrupt even the most entrenched routine. After the stillness of the earlier tracks, that sense of motion feels almost radical.

What makes Jodie compelling is its refusal to tidy loneliness into something cinematic. It sits with discomfort. It allows silence to speak. It trusts the listener.

Dotts O’Connor continues to refine a voice that is deeply personal yet universally recognisable. In choosing stillness over spectacle, he delivers something far more enduring.

The stunningly illustrated music video for Jodie also caught our eye and heart.