New full-length record from Molly O’Mahony

Based in West Cork, Molly O’Mahony has become one of the most emotionally articulate voices within Ireland’s contemporary art folk landscape. First recognised as the frontwoman of Mongoose, with whom she released two albums and spent a decade touring extensively, Molly’s songwriting has always carried a deep sensitivity to atmosphere, memory and emotional impact. Yet it was her transition into solo work that revealed something even more intimate, changing tack to explore poignant themes via timeless songwriting.

Following a series of singles, Molly released her debut solo album The House Of David in 2022, a record largely penned during lockdown while she was back home in Ballydehob, West Cork. Based in diaristic honesty and framed by spine-tingling harmonies, the album introduced a songwriter capable of highly affecting emotional candour. Its impact was immediately felt, earning national radio support including airplay on RTÉ Radio 1 and securing a nomination for Best Debut Album at the Hot Press Awards.

More importantly, it established Molly as an artist able to transform profoundly personal experiences into something listeners could connect with. Now she returns with Waiting On The World, a record that feels larger in emotional and thematic scope while remaining tethered to the same honesty that first defined her solo work. Instilled with Ireland’s storytelling traditions but shaped by the context of a post-pandemic world, the album distils themes of love, uncertainty and determination against the backdrop of a fractured global landscape.

Across its songs, personal relationships play out alongside collective anxiety, creating an ongoing tension between intimacy and instability. Each of the ten tracks function as their own contained emotional space while contributing to a broader portrait of life lived under pressure. Media distortion, societal fracture and emotional isolation drift through the record, but Molly repeatedly returns to the possibility of connection and healing.

The album opens with its title track, “Waiting On The World,” which Molly describes as an overture threaded from “real life moments from a glorious summer’s day in North Clare” alongside surreal imagery of aardvarks and silkworms. Drifting into view with soft atmospheric textures and twinkling tones, the song flows into a delicate folk scene where intricate acoustic guitar plucks, expressive vocal performance and the laid back shuffle of drums forms a truly beautiful musical moment.

“Cold Water” explores the emotional fallout of polarisation through the image of a man and woman locked in conflict, wrapped up in a subtly moody arrangement as the interplay between male and female vocals presents a spectacular duet. On “Golden Thing,” Molly reflects on the painful necessity of leaving behind something once beautiful in order to move forward, presenting a charming folk soundscape that glides with lilting rhythmic sway, tender vocals and graceful instrumentation.

Other highlights on the album include “Strange Times” which revisits a song originally written about unemployment before developing into something darker and more disorientating. “Home Place” brings an upbeat energy where pulsing instrumentation, pattering percussion and engaging vocal performance combine to deliver a lively alternative folk outing packed full of memorable melodic leads and brooding vibes.

On “Blue-Eyed Girl,” inspired by a moment shared with her young niece after a fall, Molly captures the shock of discovering that the world can wound us, even through those who love us most. Yet the song ultimately urges faith in goodness despite inevitable disappointment, presented in an emotive sound of hushed vocals and restrained instrumentation. Closing the release with “Starlight & Shadow,” the album reaches something close to resolution. Framed as a homecoming and a love song, it traces the marks experience leaves behind while celebrating the person who remained beside Molly throughout the album’s creation.

Listen to Waiting On The World below