As we wind down to the end of the year, nay the end of the decade itself, I'm conducting something of a mop up operation here. Looking at various End of Year Album lists and trying to listen to those records on it I haven't heard or paid enough attention to so I can give them some scant, late focus before 2019 runs its course.
One record that I finally have got round to listening to is When I Have Fears, the first album from Dublin's The Murder Capital, which came out and received its fair share of acclaim a couple of months back.Having finally heard it in full it's clearly worthy of that at the very least.
A cross that The Murder Capital seem destined to endure, at least for the time being is comparisons with compatriots Fontaines D.C. who also came fully into the public domain this year and pretty much swept the board in this particular punky sub-category with their own debut Dogrel which justly grabbed plaudits and critical garlands, wherever it and they went.
When I Have Fears is a lesser record to Dogrel, but its still a very good one. The two albums are similar in many respects, defiant, inflamed and literate. That The Murder Capital take a slightly darker and musically more Grungy than Punky route, (Killing Joke and Joy Division seem useful pointers), may have been the reason I didn't immediately warm to the songs I heard when it first came out and listen to the album all the way through. Still, I got there in the end and I'm pleased I did.
To say they pull no punches is putting it mildly. The interview they give in this month's issue of Q Magazine is one of the most emotive things you're ever likely to read. It's undoubtedly utterly sincere. There is a growing group of bands expressing this articulate righteousness; Shame, IDLES, Sleaford Mods, Fontaines D.C. now The Murder Capital. They're not the least of them by any means. Heartening stuff!
No comments:
Post a Comment