Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death (Review)
Well, my introduction to A Hero's Death was an unexpected one to say the least, the eponymous lead single appearing on my suggested tracks one day in May and presenting me with an instant curiosity. I hadn't expected the band would follow up their debut so quickly, and the track's title came across as uncharacteristically dramatic for the band, but I pressed play and what I was greeted with was far and away the band's best song yet. The presentation of singer Grian Chatten's coarse vocals as poetic talk rather than singing was a great decision, showing off more of his natural charisma than ever before. Not only this, but the inclusion of such soulful female backing vocals was a wonderful throwback to the 50's in a peculiar but extremely effective juxtaposition to the song's dark atmosphere and grumbling, chugging guitars and bass.
In fact, this point brings me onto the album's greatest asset, that being the creation and consistency of the atmosphere, creating a backdrop from which the band could have so easily created a better album... only to utterly miss the opportunity and release something mediocre again. Where the repetitive refrain of "life ain't always empty" played into the natural optimistic charm of "A Hero's Death", the inclusion of similar repetition for the chorus of every single other song was a poor decision, and one that comes across as incredibly lazy, having the unpleasant effect of making some of the better songs feel stagnant and overly simple. By contrast, I think the decision to leave Chatten's talk-singing on just the one song was a good one, preserving its uniqueness and not allowing that song to be outshone; however, the decision to only utilise the female backing vocals on the one song was a missed opportunity, the extra dimension it added essential to that song's accomplishment and inadvertently leaving the other songs feeling more hollow and less developed as a result.
Furthermore, the album is a bit of a structural mess, mirroring the first album in being frustratingly heavy on the ballads, creating a stop-start feel that intercepts the potency of the atmosphere. These ballads all sound far too similar to one another, tonally drab and exemplifying the aforementioned hollowness due to the cut-and-paste instrumentation on every song. Occasionally even passing into the realm of cringe, ballads such as "Oh Such A Spring" and "Sunny" may be deceivingly well produced, but that clean sound hides what are two empty songs, devoid of the passion that elevates the band's best songs. On top of this, the decision to put two ballads back to back to conclude the album was perhaps the worst one the band made, with the closing track "No" offering little of anything other than clichéd lyrics that make me wonder - were the critics even paying attention to this when reviewing the album, or were they paying more attention to the fat stacks of cash Sony had payed them to help promote the album?
Elsewhere, the non-ballads don't exactly fare much better, starting strong with the single "I Don't Belong" but not picking up the same level of quality at any point, the repetitive choruses not at all complimenting the gravelly, grim post-punk riffs, weak drumming and pleasant but forgettable bass grooves. What's frustrating is how many of these song's present from great ideas, such as the truly ominous guitar on "Love Is The Main Thing", or the shaky, delayed guitar on "Televised Mind", or the catchy guitar riff on "A Lucid Dream" and - are you seeing a pattern here? The guitar playing is the obvious highlight of the album, more than even on the last record, but in this case its so often just one good idea without enough variation, and it just gets worn out too quickly, leaving so much less of an impact than it should have.
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