Album Review: Fontaines D.C. – 'A Hero’s Death'
“Life ain’t always empty” – it certainly isn’t if you get your hands on this.
Unless you’ve been living under a rock these last eighteen months, you would have heard of a young band from Dublin by the name of Fontaines D.C. Following a series of successful single releases, Fontaines brought their debut album Dogrel into the world – a love letter to their hometown that combined the poetry and atmosphere of Unknown Pleasures with the attitude and swagger of Is This It. After extensive touring and much critical acclaim, “the boys from the better land” are back with their second LP A Hero’s Death.
A Hero’s Death is one of the most highly anticipated rock albums of the year, and more so than D.C.’s debut. …Death consists of eleven brand new songs. The first hint of these was the single ‘A Hero’s Death’, a ‘Lust for Life’ meets ‘Last Nite’ post-punk anthem. It was followed by ‘I Don’t Belong’. It opens the album and sets the tone perfectly with it’s dark and moody atmosphere, slow tempo and “mission statement” of “I don’t belong to anyone/I don’t want to belong to anyone.” This introspective, slower paced and minor key approach is used in many of the songs on A Hero’s Death: ‘You Said’, with it’s unassuming yet brilliant guitar riff; ‘Sunny’ with it’s lovely string accompaniment and Rewind the Film vibe; and album closer ‘No’ – the perfect end to the album. However, if you were to listen to just one of these slower songs, then make sure you listen to ‘Oh Such a Spring’. It’s beautifully melancholic and nostalgic lyrics could bring you to tears, whilst the chorus is has a similar feel to the Murder Capital’s ‘On Twisted Ground’ and could have been featured on Skeleton Tree.
Fontaines D.C. have not forgotten about the rock n’ roll that they made their own so well on their debut. If you managed to catch the band on tour, you may have heard ‘Televised Mind’ (brilliant single) and the huge psychedelic-tinged attack of ‘A Lucid Dream’. ‘Love is the Main Thing’ has a Joy Division and The National vibe with Ennio Morricone style guitars, and ‘I Was Not Born’ (possibly the only major key song) is the closest to anything similar to getting another ‘Liberty Belle’. ‘Living in America’, though, is the standout track. It’s bizarre noise opening to the descending melody of Grian’s vocals will make you stop whatever you’re doing. It is truly epic.
With the massive tour last year and critical acclaim, Fontaines D.C. could have easily crumbled under the pressure or maybe not have released their second record until next year. But A Hero’s Death is a diamond of an album. It shows the band becoming more experimental in their approach to songwriting and the sounds they can create, whilst still making something that is undeniably ‘Fontaines D.C.’. It proves just how great they are. In fact, proves that they are the best band in the world right now.
Words by Matthew Brocklehurst