The 50 best albums of 2022: No 9 – Fontaines DC: Skinty Fia

Fontaines DC person been connected rather the travel implicit the people of their 3 albums to date. Their 2019 instant classical Dogrel was – unsurprisingly, from a set named aft Dublin metropolis – mostly acceptable successful the Irish capital. In a refreshingly unfettered accent, vocalist Grian Chatten delivered punky, rumbustious songs brimming with references to circumstantial pubs and characters, from the ranting preacher connected Chequeless Reckless to the anglophobic cabby of Boys successful the Better Land. A twelvemonth later, they took a near crook with A Hero’s Death. Mostly written and recorded portion touring Dogrel, these songs were slower, much brooding, reflecting the band’s feelings of burnout and dislocation amid a gruelling docket and guilt implicit their success.

This year’s Skinty Fia signalled their astir extremist metamorphosis yet. There aren’t excessively galore signs near of Dogrel’s rabble-rousing punk; instead, the set person go much reflective portion besides throwing successful curveballs, bringing successful caller textures from Irish people accordion to hints of drum’n’bass.

Once again, it was chiefly driven by sizeable shifts successful geography aft the five-piece near Dublin to acceptable up location successful London. This time, the songs mostly code Ireland and Irishness from the viewpoint of the Irish diaspora abroad, acknowledging the band’s request to broaden their horizons portion holding connected to strong, if occasionally bittersweet, affection for their homeland. Chatten’s narration with his location state forms the album’s prickly but compelling undercurrent. Roman Holiday details the singer’s experiences arsenic a conflicted anglo-Irishman (his parent is English) successful London: “Whose broadside are you on? I don’t wanna spot the Queen.”

Digging into the disconnect betwixt mean humans and societal structures, Fontaines DC marque antithetic subjects look universal. The haunting opener, In ár gCroíthe spell deo, begins with a choir and takes its rubric from an Irish Post communicative astir an Irish pistillate successful the UK who, absurdly, had to conflict the Church of England to person the inscription (meaning “in our hearts forever”) connected her gravestone. Then there’s the superb I Love You, informed by the 2017 Tuam attraction location scandal, which unearthed the remains of 800 babies. (“This island’s tally by sharks with children’s bones stuck successful their jaws.”) Another highlight, Jackie Down the Line, addresses cycles of abuse. Ironically, it’s already go a unrecorded singalong: similar the Smiths oregon the Pogues, Fontaines person realised that you tin code each mode of uncomfortable topics if the tunes are beardown enough.

That includes interior conflict. The wistful Bloomsday finds Chatten struggling to reconcile his romanticist visions of James Joyce’s Dublin with the gentrified modern reality. The rubric way addresses the straightforward capable taxable of aboriginal fame, but from a little evident angle: however it feels to realise everyone has an sentiment astir you. Chatten delivers the words with a black, somewhat Morrissey-esque consciousness of humour that Fontaines aren’t mostly fixed recognition for: “I’m not inclined towards the scandalous connection but connected the taxable of myself I bash judge what I’ve heard.” The accordion crops up connected The Couple Across the Way, Chatten’s brutal yet empathic observations of a mates surviving crossed the way, whose narration has go acold and toxic. Lines deed location similar a boxer’s jabs: “You usage voices connected the telephone that were erstwhile spent connected me.”

Encouragingly, the band’s adventures are taking their fanbase with them – nary little than 9 of Skinty Fia’s 10 songs are being played connected the existent tour. You thrill astatine wherever they’ll question next.