Galway songwriter Dove Ellis is preparing to open for Geese in the United States, carrying with him a sound as intense and beautiful as the band whose tour he joins. His debut album, Blizzard, is out this December, and with it he introduces a double release: Pale Song and Love Is. Both tracks inhabit a frail, wintry atmosphere and prove Ellis as one of the most singular talents around – one set for the sharpest upward trajectory imaginable.
Though self-produced, these tracks are far from solitary ventures, reflective of Ellis’ involvement in the No Band Is An Island collective. His collaborative ethos is evident: ‘Love Is’ features Saya Barbaglia of Mary in the Junkyard on viola, with Paddy Murphy and Reuben Haycocks of Westside Cowboy contributing bass and electric guitar.
There’s a sense of Radiohead worship here, but in the best possible way, with Ellis’ falsetto fragile and quivering, evoking Thom Yorke without imitation. ‘Love Is’ introduces itself as a weathered piano ballad before exploding into power pop brilliance. It opens glacially as unfurling piano and intricate viola wrap the air in something trembling. That air then thins around his weightless falsetto, threaded with a kind of fragile tenderness as Ellis constructs a world of quiet fatalism: “Love is not the antidote to all of your problems”.
Where ‘Love Is’ reaches outward, ‘Pale Song’ turns inward. Slower and more meditative, it feels like a winter night drawing in as sparse harmonics glimmer like frost. It builds more conventionally than its counterpart, revolving around a soft, stunning chorus that will do little to quash the inevitable Jeff Buckley comparisons but plenty to stoke the fanfare around Dove Ellis.
Alongside debut single ‘To The Sandals’, these tracks sketch the terrain of Blizzard; they do not warm, they render the cold exquisite, enclosing the listener in a delicate serenity. The word-of-mouth hype surrounding Ellis has been relentless, and after three standout releases in 2025, it has never been clearer that we’re witnessing the emergence of a truly remarkable talent.
Words: Donovan Livesey Photo: Xander Lewis