Song(s) of the Day # 3,435 Grian Chatten

 

The rise and rise of Dublin Punksters Fontaines D.C. has been one of the more interesting stories of recent years. Chippy, chip on shoulder characters by instinct they've put out consistently interesting and invigorating records and perhaps are one of the few bands I can think of where the tag Post Punk actually seems apt given that they genuinely seem fueled by an essential restlessness an inability to scratch an existential itch within. They owe as much of a debt to Samuel Becket and Brendan Behan as they do to The Fall or The Pop Group.

The fact that vocalist Grian Chatten has chosen to pit out a solo album Chaos For The Fly at this point gives the listener the sense that ne and they might be at some kind of an impasse.right now. The record does not sound like a Fontaines record except for fact that he's one of the distinctive vocalists around right now and he's absolutely at the heart of this. And his heart is by no means a happy one. These are not reasons to be cheerful.

Chatten's voice is a marmite one, meaning it will not be for everyone and remains so here. It's the most consistent factor with what we've come to expect of him on here. I'm still not quite sure what I think of it. He's always slightly out of tune. He cannot hit a note in the conventional sense in the tradition of John Lydon, Ian Curtis and David Thomas. This is all quite deliberate and gives him a consistently rebellious and anti-authoritarian air. He doesn't wish to come to the party. He's quite happy on the margins. Standing on the corner, where he is. Musically he's working on a much less clattered palate than we're used to from his Fontaine's work. These songs aren't agitprop they're declarations of the state of play in his soul right now.

If that sounds a bit much then that's what you get with Chatten and Fountaines D.C. They're incessantly ambitious and refuse to be boxed or constrained in any way. The fact that Chatten has chosen to pause at this point to release this more meditative collection is testament, if testament is still needed at this poin,t to that. It's another powerful statement and I suspect one that will prove to be a grower.