There has been a noticeable and welcome increase in spoken word-based music released and of course reflected on these pages over the past few years, from the dramatic heartfelt oratory of Kate Tempest to the cocksure cheekiness of Yard Act, the humorously cynical idiosyncrasy of The Cool Greenhouse to the sardonic dryness of Dry Cleaning, and many more. Fontaines D.C. of course feature a prominent spoken element, with other Dublin bands also coming the fore, but there a few releases as heartfelt, powerful and grief-stricken as this album by the poet, performer and producer David Balfe.
Birthday/The Pain, a song about witnessing a murder person left on a road as a child, was featured on our New Songs section earlier this month. The album was originally conceived when Balfe was member of punk collective Burnt Out, for as a solo project about friendship, but it became an over-riding eulogy after the suicide of best friend, fellow band member and poet Paul Curran. Opening track I Have a Love looks back at how he first played this track to Paul on a car stereo. The music is speckled with a variety of beats, electronica, samples (including echoes of classic soul such as The Tracks of My Tears on The Shape of You), dubstep, club sounds, voices from pally laughter to football chanting to high-pitched shrieks particularly on the disturbingly powerful The Myth/I Don’t. There are clear echoes of Mike Skinner’s The Streets on this record - mixing bedroom production with candid storytelling and recollection of good times with the lads. Balfe’s heavy Dublin accent adds to the authenticity and the emotion. The album’s nine tracks flow into one another, but among the othe standouts are The Shape of You, the angry Top Scheme, and the movingly affectionate You Live/No One Like You. A brilliantly visceral but tender album, expressing all the stages and grief and mourning, despair and hope with vivid and moving delivery. Out on September Records.
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