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Last Active 10-02-22 11:01 am
Joined 08-17-13
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| Fontaines D.C.: I Love You
On the eve of their 3rd album, I thought it would be worth going through the band’s catalogue so far, picking out some of their best songs and giving a little write up on why I think they’re good or notable. I was originally going to do this as a ranked list but having to arbitrarily rank songs sucks the fun out of it. Personally, I think they’ve released 2 of the best post-punk albums of the last decade, and Skinty Fia is looking to be an exciting and much more eclectic affair based on the singles so far. | | 1 |  | Fontaines D.C.
Dogrel
Big.
“Dublin in the rain is mine, a pregnant city with a Catholic mind”
For many outside Dublin, this was their introduction to the band. It’s brash, braggadocios and Grian’s lyrics perfectly captures the scrappy attitude of being a kid with big dreams and a bit of a chip on your shoulder. The bassline is a total earworm and this barnstormer of a track acts as a perfect MO for a band with big ambitions. | | 2 | | Fontaines D.C.
Dogrel
Too Real.
“None can revolution lead with selfish needs aside, as I cry, I’m about to make a lot of money”
If Big established the bands penchant for stompers, Too Real introduced listeners to the band’s other side (one A Hero’s Death would explore in greater depth). Repetition, tension, winding verses and slowly building crescendos are the name of the game and when the track finally explodes, it really explodes. This was the first Fontaines track I fell in love with, and it still stands as one of their best. | | 3 | | Fontaines D.C.
Dogrel
The Lotts.
“Death is falling down on your work routine and it’s falling even harder on your churches and your queens”
What I just said about repetition and crescendos? Take that, add a heavy dose of melancholia and you have The Lotts. Lyrically, I still think this is one of Grian’s finest moments, and the wailing, screeching guitar licks over the hammering piano chords and cries of anguish from Grian over the outro make for one of the band’s most memorable and holistic works. In hindsight, it’s amazing how fully formed the band sound on their debut; perhaps even more amazing, then, that they would only continue outdoing themselves with subsequent works. | | 4 |  | Fontaines D.C.
A Hero's Death
I Don’t Belong.
“I heard him serving as a soldier in the annexe of the earth”
And, for me, this is where things get really interesting. A Hero’s Death is my favourite Fontaines album of the two so far and one of my favourites full stop. Very few albums capture the feeling of dejection, exhaustion and doom in the face of success better than this album. Knowing things are going well and somehow feeling like you’ve betrayed yourself, like you don’t deserve it, is a jarring and alienating feeling, and one this album captures better than any I’ve heard. On I Don’t Belong, tales of soldiers and troubadours are punctuated with melancholic guitars and muscular, assured percussion. It’s the perfect album opener and, just like Big, perfectly outlines the band’s intentions for the album. They found the success they hungered for and it scared them shitless. | | 5 | | Fontaines D.C.
A Hero's Death
A Lucid Dream.
“And it’s all coming back and the main this is that the rain changed direction before you were there”
One of two or three real ragers on A Hero’s Death, a cacophony of snares, feedback and minor key melodies punctuate Grian’s nasal howls and lyrics of bewilderment and anxiety in the spotlight. It’s a testament to the band's craftsmanship that they can broach this subject in such depth without once falling into the traps of self-pity and self-centredness. This isn’t a performative ‘woe is me’ act, this feels like the musical equivalent of a panic attack and an existential crisis at the same time, and it’s deeply affecting. | | 6 | | Fontaines D.C.
A Hero's Death
Oh Such a Spring.
“The clouds cleared up, the sun hit the sky, I watched all the folks go to work just to die and I wished I could go back to spring again”
It’s a complete hack move to discuss how an album recorded months before Covid was a mere twinkle in fate’s eye predicted the national or international mood as we watched our days drain away for months on end and pine for simpler times. Some albums really met the mood perfectly, and although Fetch the Bolt Cutters may be the first that comes to mind for many, A Hero’s Death couldn’t have been more prescient as a soundtrack to the feeling of utter hopeless and indefinite emptiness many of us have felt throughout the past 2 years. Perhaps the most overtly downbeat moment on A Hero's Death, Oh Such a Spring typifies this mindset perfectly with its nostalgic (in its original meaning) lyrics and gently strummed arpeggios. | | 7 | | Fontaines D.C.
A Hero's Death
Sunny.
“Where I was I can’t tell”
Living up to its title, this is a warm track filled with sun bleached guitars and wistful strings. But don’t let that fool you into thinking Fontaines decided to bring some levity to A Hero’s Death’s penultimate track. In the run up to A Hero’s Death, the band discussed how they originally recorded a completely different album in California with a new producer, how the emphasis would be on harmonies this time, how they’d been listening to Beach Boys throughout the recording process. For reasons we may never know, the band scrapped those sessions and opted instead to record A Hero’s Death with Dan Carey, 2010s post-punk wizard and producer of Dogrel. Ultimately I’m glad they went with their guts and made the album they thought they should, but the gorgeous, bittersweet harmonies in the outro offer a glimpse into what could have been. | | 8 | | Fontaines D.C.
A Hero's Death
No.
"And you're mugged by your belief that you owe it all to grief"
Sunny and No comprise one of the best one-two punch album closers in recent memory, albeit a subdued one. As a resolution to the angst running throughout A Hero’s Death, No is spectacular in its ability to covey both resignation and hope. Sometimes, acceptance is the only way forward; after an album of ugly self-portraits, isolation and paralysing fear, it’s also a plea for peace. | | 9 |  | Fontaines D.C.
Skinty Fia
Jackie Down the Line.
“What good is happiness to me if I’ve to wield it carefully?”
A jangle pop tune about being a complete bastard? It’s not the first thing you’d expect from the band, but it’s a surprisingly natural fit with a maddeningly catchy chorus and a gnarly (yes, I’m using that word) post-chorus riff. Jackie Down the Line is excellent mediation between the band's more anthemic and moodier tendencies, and never has “doo doo doo la la la” added so much to a song. | | 10 | | Fontaines D.C.
Skinty Fia
I Love You.
“And I loved you like a penny loves the pocket of a priest and I'll love you 'til the grass around my gravestone is deceased”
For many, leaving the place you grew up in pursuit of something greater is a rite of passage. For others, it’s an existential nightmare. I Love You is an ode to the feelings of conflict one can have for their hometown, knowing all its flaws but still viewing it through rose tinted glasses, and the guilt felt for leaving. This is a masterpiece of songwriting and perhaps the band’s finest song to date. Fontaines’ albums all have loose thematic focus, from Dogrel’s (mostly) romantic view of Dublin to A Hero’s Death plumbing of the depths of dejection in the face of victory. If, as hinted, Skinty Fia is a deconstruction of Irishness from the view of an ex-Dubliner, it could prove to be Fontaines DC’s most compelling album to date. | |
Tunaboy45
04.09.22 | This is mostly just me slathering praise on a band I really like, but we’re allowed to indulge ourselves every now and then. | Tunaboy45
04.24.22 | This list would look different now Skinty Fia is actually out, so many essential tracks. |
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