Fontaines D.C.
Skinty Fia

Fontaines D.C. are an Irish band, and we can already infer this from the name, where D.C. stands for Dublin City.

Artistically, they were born in 2019, with the release of their first album, "Dogrel". I didn't know them at the time, but I think I read that they already had a fair amount of success then... I don't give much importance to this historical statement because for me Fontaines were born in 2022, not so much because I discovered them with the release of their third work, but because after listening to the first two albums, I realized that indeed "Skinty Fia" can be identified as their first album, the album where a remarkable band is born.

For heaven's sake, "Dogrel" and "A Hero's Death" are absolutely valid, but the sound and atmosphere of "Skinty Fia" are unmatched and leave an indelible mark on the eardrums and minds as a distinctive and unmistakable sign.

The album opens with a pulsating bass and an incomprehensible and unpronounceable title; after all, they are Irish and want to make that clear.

This concept of "Irishness" (if you can call it that) isn't trivial... it's a very strong sense of belonging present in all their songs. The Irish, in general really, are characterized by this strong sense of belonging, something even Joyce recognized and felt (now our friend on Deb).

"In ár gCroíthe go deo" means "forever in our hearts" and the inspiration for the piece came from a true story:

In England, the Irish are not well regarded, their roots carry the burden of being associated with anger and terrorism (perhaps due to the legitimate struggle for independence?!).

The song aims to denounce the denial made to a family to engrave the words naming the track on a relative's tombstone to honor her Irish roots.

But these historical aspects don't quite fit my analysis, although in this case, they are fundamental to understanding the underlying sentiment of the work.

Let's return to the pulsating bass that opens the dance...

It's a great indicator of what to expect in the following tracks: what I love about the album is this dark, gloomy atmosphere, almost gathered in a tiny red room illuminated by lights that are equally dark and intermittent, just like the bass.

Let's say it mixes a lot of dark electronics with a 90's gothic and alternative rock, but also brings back 80's atmospheres (especially found in the widespread use of choirs).

If in previous records there's an excessive use of instruments, melodies, and counter-melodies, here the arrangement is very simple. They manage with just the essentials (Guitar, Bass, Drums, voice, and choirs) to create a universe in which to navigate... it's hard to put it into words, but each track follows the same imprint and underlying idea; they are all within the same room but each plays on its own uniqueness.

The real common thread, however, is Chatten's voice...

In "Skinty Fia" he abandons the so-called Spoken Word (a sort of spoken singing) to venture into truly sung tracks.

Why is this newsworthy? Well, basically because he can't sing... or rather, his voice is like a monotone instrument, always on the same vibrations. This can have two outcomes:

On one hand, it can be boring in the long run, on the other it can really become a sort of confidant voice, as if we were talking with a friend. In every track, we know we will find the same frequencies, the same timbre with the same range saying different words, in similar but detailed contexts... it's like a certainty, a Virgil to accompany you on our journey through hell, purgatory, and paradise.

"How Cold Love Is" is absolutely captivating.

It's simple, with a clean sound and an acidic guitar in the background, sharp at every moment of the track, creating a sense of tension through just two notes repeated ad nauseam. After all, the track talks about love and tension, feelings rendered perfectly.

The chorus, in turn, follows the formula simplicity = perfection. It almost seems Urban due to the sharp and distinct metric of the text, almost disrespectful of rock and winking at punk (not sure what I'm saying).

But it gives me an incredible charge.

What's next is even more enthralling, "Jackie Down The Line" is worth almost the entire album.

Here, Chatten's voice reaches dissonance, and maybe that's what makes the melody penetrating yet fragile at the same time, so you remain in that limbo, on the surface of the water without going deep... you walk in this precarious balance, and when you reach the end, you realize it was precisely that which created satisfaction... you'll listen to it again, and without realizing it, you'll hum it for a few days.

"Bloomsday" is the track where Chatten says goodbye to Dublin; therefore, the key to understanding it is sadness, incredibly well expressed by the guitar in the chorus (very different from the acidic one in "How Cold Love Is"... now it becomes warm and welcoming).

Going in listening order, we finally reach my favorite track "Roman Holiday".

Honestly, I can't describe it to you... the guitar is distorted, almost dissonant and deeply melancholic.

The melodic line is undulating, it seems like a joyful and rocking lullaby towards ecstasy, this not because it's boring, on the contrary, but because it's redundant and symmetrical, characteristics that symbolize perfection for me, so they give me a sense of particular attraction.

From here on, the album descends... maybe because with the already heard tracks I've reached a high level of satisfaction, or perhaps because "The Couple Across The Way" is a ballad with a maximum of 5 accordion notes repeated for 3.56 minutes which reminds me of a song I had birthed in my creative nights and ended up hating... I don't know... but this is truly a lullaby.

"Skinty Fia", the title track, doesn't convince me because it brings back the fullness of the arrangement that I had ceased to appreciate in favor of simplicity.

The same goes for "Nabokov", while "I Love You" is their most political track, but the voice loses a bit of its precarious magic and doesn't drag me along.

In short, I quite like this Gothic Rock à la Cure because it has a precise identity, it's poetic, rich in meanings (which you can discover by reading the lyrics and the myriad of interviews they have released on the occasion of the album's release) and it has something that I've never perceived in modern rock, or even in the past; I don't know what, but there's something particular about it.