Review Summary: Awesome garage-ey punk rock
The album ‘A Hero’s Death’ is the second album by the Irish band Fontaines D.C.
This is a fine slice of rock music, classed as post-punk, but such a label features a broad range.
One of the most noticeable things is the excellent production. It’s not very ‘hi-tech’, rather simple, but it’s very clear, and the band through your earphones will sound live as if you are in a room with them playing around you, it is definitely a very ‘live’ sound. The vocalist is quite loud in the mix, not buried under layers of distorted guitars.
That brings me to the guitars - they don’t use heavy distortion, they prefer the sharper tones of 60s garage-rock, sometimes using the twang of classic surfer rock. They create the energy with their dynamic playing. They’re diverse, throwing in the odd dreamy ballad to keep you guessing. The vocals have an off-hand swagger which complements their laid-back persona very well. The lyrical content is generally philosophical about life, with a positive attitude - the album cover might have a warrior holding a shield but these guys are rather friendly and welcoming, I don’t know another band that will advise the listener to ‘buy yourself a flower every hundredth hour’, well not in 2020 anyway!
There are plenty of highlights, however I would nominate ‘I was not born’, a lively garage-rock jam that makes you wanna bang on the air drums along with it as they shout ‘I was not born to do another mans bidding!’. The brooding ‘Living in America’ feels epic, a passionate expression of frustration that sounds like a long lost theme song to a Wild West movie. The opening ‘I don’t belong’ is an instantly catch mid-paced rocker that’ll quickly stick in your head.
The wistful ‘you said’ is the best ballad here, with its aching sentimental lyrics accompanying the music well, while the careless deep vocal on ‘Love is the main thing’ feels somewhat Johnny Cash, as does the whole ‘feel’ of the song, as if it were almost country-rock of a lost era.
There are downsides. Some of the songs repeat the chorus a lot as if they were running out of ideas, while ‘Lucid Dream’, albeit a very good song, feels as though it’s in a hurry.
The other thing is the vocalist, I like his sincere demeanour and straight forward delivery, but sometimes he sounds decidedly out of tune, which may be fine for the ‘rockers’ but on a Beatlesque psychedelic ballad like ‘Sunny’, or the reflective album closer ‘No’ any of his weaknesses are put in the spotlight.
However, this is a very enjoyable album by a talented band and I’m sure most of us are hoping their next album isn’t too far away - a band to look out for.
