Live albums , with very rare exceptions, are a shite idea. They are usually either a validation exercise for the musicians in question, proving that they can cut it live (even if sly overdubs are helpfully added), or a cynical contract-fulfilling grab at fans hard earned cash. There is a tacit agreement between artist, record company, and fan that these albums are both (paradoxically) a must have, and at the same time of limited interest.

Damien Dempsey’s Live at the Olympia is a pleasant surprise then. It is that rare thing, a live album that changes the way you listen to an artist. It’s no exaggeration to say that, if you haven’t heard this album, you probably haven’t heard Damien Dempsey at his best..

Dempsey has, for a long time, been lionised by important Irish artists & critics, perhaps most notably Sinead O’Connor (whose own influence on Dempsey’s live sound is evident on this record). He’s been dubbed the Celtic Bob Marley, and put on a pedestal as a songwriter whose work is of ‘great political and social import’. Not surprising, perhaps, given that Dempsey has as contemporaries the increasingly navel gazing Frames, the actress-wooing Damien Rice, and the Beach Boy wannabees The Thrills. In a country that foisted boybands like Westlife on an unsuspecting world, it has been almost a given that a defiantly working-class artist who sings in his own thick Dublin accent would be worthy of note.

The problem has been, though, that despite the good intentions, originality, and charisma that Dempsey certainly has, often the songs on record just don’t stand up to scrutiny. A prime example was his first ever single, Dublin Town – which in its original single format is a truly dreadful song (Not surprisngly it’s absent from this live set). While his recorded work has evolved admirably since that dismal debut, with Dempsey obviously taking more of a decision on production matters, there are always moments when his songwriting commits the gravest of sins – the all too obvious rhyme. Let’s take an example: In Apple of my Eye, one of Dempsey’s most beautiful songs, a love song to New York, we get the lines

“We’re treated better there
A homeless one is rare”

Now, that poses a number of questions. Does Dempsey really believe that New York has fewer homeless than Dublin? Or was it a handy line to close the rhyme and rythmn? Presuming that Dempsey isn’t that naiive – and then again, there’s no rule to suggest songwriters can’t be naiive and brilliant, just take a look at John Lennon – then it’s just plain clumsy. Records that have careless bum notes repeatedly rarely become classics – and it should be the same for lines like the above.

Much of Dempsey’s work, thus far, has dealt with self-confidence, self-love, and the effects of positive and negative thinking. Negative Vibes, which is quite spectacular on this record – sung with passion by both the artist and audience alike – could almost be a reaction to the above criticism, without being a response.

I’m agnostic when it comes to the positivity/negativity arguments. That is to say that I don’t know whether thinking positively/negatively 24hours a day will make the world a better/worse place. However, take Dempsey’s always interesting but often flawed songs and put them in front of an overwhelmingly positive and vocal audience, as this record does, and they shine brilliantly.

His best known pieces like All Good, Negative Vibes and Colony have a resonance and groove that they lack elsewhere. They touch on raw nerves – history, colonialism, social injustice – that should be, but rarely are the substance for songwriters. Dempsey is always deserving of applause for courage in his writing (though he’s always on the knife-edge of oversimplification), but here he’s worthy of applause for his singing and style as well.

Polemicist Eoin Harris, in a documentary on Dempsey, described him as a musician ‘who’s walking the thin line between the tribe and the world – I’d like to just see him leave the tribe”. While Harris has his own hobbie-horses, one has to agree with him on this, at least based on the songs on display here. Colony undoubtedly packs a punch, but songs like Hold Me and Apple of My Eye take the breath away.

Here’s to hoping that Dempsey moves forward with his next album and throws away his rhyming dictionary. There’s nothing to say that a working class hero can’t be eloquent.