Enragement is the gritty subject of Fontaines D.C.’s bitter but brilliant sound. The Dublin born, post-punk band, hold a raw, violent temper with life, and a clear ambivalence for their hometown. This moodiness is manifested through steely sound, and angry, impressive lyrics, that are spoken and shouted throughout the record with honesty and style. The fiery band is a representation of the vexation towards the outside world; positioning themselves as a relevant breath of fresh air.
The boys punchy tenth track ‘Boys in the better land’, grips you with its avalanche of crunchy, loud sound. The track seems to deal with the romanticism of emigration. In the tracks pre-chorus, lead singer Grian Chatten instructs ‘If you’re a rockstar, pornstar, superstar, doesn’t matter what you are get yourself a good car, get outta here’ The track exploits the fantasy of leaving one’s homeland, and strives to show the distasteful relationship one can have with its place of birth. The beauty of this track lies within its familiar, tangible rage and its ability to fuel the body from fast, sharp and hooking instrumentation.
The record’s opening track ‘Big’, offers a contradictory image of Dublin. In the track’s opening line, Chatten exclaims ‘Dublin in the rain is mine, a pregnant city with a catholic mind’ The line appears as a conscious dig at the boy’s hometown, idealising the city as unrighteous and disloyal. This track presents their religious city as unholy, offering only a warped, foreign image of what was once familiar. This track vomits out lines of pure ambivalence, showing personal feelings and emotions as the culprits for this track’s substance, and the record’s allure.
The record prides itself on odd versatility. In amidst the crashing, punk sounds and angry rambles, there is room for the odd tender track. In ‘Roys tune’, a rather hidden gem on the record, gentle guitar chords and gracefully sung lyrics precede. The track is a real change of pace for the record, and prove these boys can do it all. In the line, ‘my eyes weren’t dead’, Chatten vulnerably talks of growing older, the tribulation of becoming lifeless and hopeless from living, a heartbreaking salute to ageing. In the track’s outro, chatten sighs ‘hey love, are you hanging on?’ the tenderness and grace of this line is remarkably sincere and endearing, its shows again the bottomless emotion Chatten offers in ‘Dogrel’.
“Dogrel” is nothing short of exquisite, it places Fontaines D.C. as a relevant, fresh, and unforgettable talent within today’s music scene. The debut record is a bipolar account towards modernity and existence, and it cannot help but ooze personality.
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