A Hero’s Death – Fontaines D.C (Partisan Records)
Fontaines D.C, the Dubliner post-punk five piece, are back, announcing their sophomore album with the release of it’s titular track “A Hero’s Death” and it’s accompanying music video. Interestingly, on this release the band appear to be making a slight departure from their candid, no-nonsense post-punk debut that was eaten up by critics and listeners alike. Instead, layered vocal harmonies and doo wop adlibs contrast against the darker message and the dramatic music video, which could have been plucked straight from Father John Misty’s archives.
Lyrically, the song is structured around a repeating series of mantras, which initially appear optimistic, but quickly adopts a grimmer tone. Lead singer Grian Chatten confirmed this darker interpretation by hastening to add that they’re “principles for self-prescribed happiness that can often hang by a thread”. It certainly achieves that effect, with the anxiety inducing guitar riffs colouring the release with a sense of dread.
For the video, the band have enlisted fellow Irishman Aidan Gillen, known for his recent roles in Game of Thrones and Peaky Blinders, to play the role of a troubled late night host. Centred around Gillen preparing backstage, repetition is equally important to the video as it is to the lyrics, as the video gradually begins to spiral into a campy but claustrophobic nightmare for the host with the workers around him begin to morph into monsters, aliens and other things that go bump in the night. The earlier comparison to Father John Misty’s dramatic and irony tinged flavour of rock feels incredibly apt, but it never oversteps itself; A Hero’s Death is still firmly post-punk, and it does it well, and this track will leave listeners eager for the full release at the end of July.
5/5
Words: Alex Payne