One look at the name of the album, its cover and the song titles made me realise that Fontaines D.C. have not failed. Skinty Fia is Irish for 'the damnation of the deer', and I do not believe that you can come up with a better album title than that. The cover is beautiful, sinister, intense. And do not get me started on those song titles... "Bloomsday" and "Nabokov" (both side closers). "In ár gCroíthe go deo" and "Skinty Fia". Even "I Love You" looked promising. After all, it is one thing if you are Bryan Adams and record a song called "I Love You" - and it is something else entirely if you do so being a post-punk band from Dublin.
There is literacy, there is taste and there is style in everything that Fontaines D.C. do. In a way, they almost overdo it in terms of style and taste, and you sometimes have to wonder if they would not benefit from fucking it all up a little. An odd complaint to make, granted, and I love them regardless - but the accordion in "The Couple Across The Way" almost sounds subversive.
As ever, the songs are well-written, clever, full of personality. I once read an interview with John Leckie, the man who produced a number of classic albums, and he stressed the importance of sequencing. The Stone Roses, he claimed, was ideal in its construction - start and end as did with two monumental epics. Skinty Fia is perfect in that sense. "In ár gCroíthe go deo" (Irish for 'in our hearts forever') builds up beautifully with that sparse arrangement and haunting chant and erupts in an impassioned, slow-burning, mesmerising manner. And then, at the very end, there is "Nabokov", an irresistible shoegaze groove whose five-minute running time seems barely enough.
What comes in between those two epics cannot hope to reach such lofty heights, of course, but the powerful single "Jackie Down The Line" is absurdly infectious, the accordion-driven "The Couple Across The Way" is a welcome surprise, the title song is a cold-blooded thriller, and "I Love You" is, indeed, as good as I imagined. I know these guys get criticised for the lack of warmth and emotion - but I have never felt that way, and I do find "I Love You" a moving, desperate ode.
Skinty Fia makes it three excellent albums by Fontaines D.C. - not bad for a band of four Irish lads who could have easily caved in under pressure. They have not, they are still going strong, exploring their sound and trying to be as adventurous as the style and taste would allow. Skinty Fia is my album of the month, easily, but as for my uncalled-for suggestion for the future... well, I suggest throwing that ugly, twisted, wrong chord into the mix. On occasion. Once in a while.
April round-up:
Fontaines D.C. - Skinty Fia ****
Spiritualized - Everything Was Beautiful ****
Daniel Rossen - You Belong There ***1/2
Wet Leg - Wet Leg ***
PUP - The Unraveling Of Puptheband ***
