Songs from Ireland (March 2025)
NO LOGO IN THE FOAM
At the end of 2024 my friend Sam and I went to see Fat White Family, for approximately the one millionth time. They were in an unusually upbeat mood. As I referenced in the previous piece last month, they often engage with the audience with a silent hostility that makes you assume that they hate you. However, whether it be because of the relentless march of time and/or general weariness, they did appear to softened a little recently. They haven’t gone 100% One Show, but they have started talking to the audience, in their inimitable massively contrarian but quite funny sort of way.
For reasons I can’t remember, they got onto the well worn subject of how Irish-stuff appears to be quite popular at the moment. They made a joke that no one was buying their music because they weren’t Irish; during which, they made their drummer stand-up in front of the audience and reveal a t-shirt he was wearing, which read: “ Born to play in Fontaines DC. Forced to play in Fat White Family ”.
As Sam and I sensibly chuckled away to myself later that night as we recalled that joke, I did also wonder: what are the drivers behind Fontaines DC’s sudden, enormous eruption in popularity?
Let's start with the optimistic angle. Here, you’ve got a band who have been consistently making excellent music for the best part of 10 years, who have an outrageous capacity for creativity and approach the creative process with an apparent sincerity, which clearly comes across in a lot of their music. In many ways, this is the logical result of consistent excellence. Fontaines DC are fucking great. I’m glad Fontaines DC are doing well. I hope Fontaines DC are having a nice time.
Yet also, there is a strong whiff of “music business stuff” going on here. It does seem an odd coincidence that the album that goes massive just happens to be after they switch to a bigger label (with presumably a bigger marketing budget), and also coincides with a time when they decide to adopt a hideous new look that makes them look a weird cross between Sum-41 and Klaxons (they say this is voluntary, but I’m not so sure. Lads, if you’re reading this, write in the comments below if you don’t like your new clothes).
Basically, it's clearly been decided by some people in an office somewhere that they’re going to be really big; which, to be fair, is basically all of music. At least the marketing overlords picked some seasoned pros to shove into a cannon and fire towards the O2 Arena; rather than ruining the lives of some young up-and-comers with too much too soon.
But the question really is: Why Fontaines DC? Why now? Some might say that it's because of an apparent boom in popularity of “Irish stuff”, and all the sexy tricolour marketing they can do. Paul Mescal! Barry Keoghan! Sally Rooney! Guinness! I’m being facetious here (I like literally all of these things) but I do think it's interesting how these trends come about. Was there a similar “revival” when “U2” became a thing? Has an economic boom triggered some investment in the arts? Or has some guy in an office somewhere just decided that we’re all going to be interested in Irish stuff now? What does this mean for Chris O’Dowd? Murphy’s? Maeve Binchy?
A lot of questions, none of which I will attempt to answer, because, ultimately: who cares. It doesn’t matter. Whether you like Fontaines DC’s silly new clothes, or you’re the sort of person who likes to point out that, well actually, Fontaines’ first album Dogrel from 2018 is actually far superior to 2024’s Romance, actually, I’m pleased to report that this cultural splurge has brought some exciting music from across the Irish Sea into my awareness. And now it's coming into yours. Whether you think it’s all jolly well-deserved or all a big conspiracy, hopefully your life gets better after listening to these songs.
One final note: All of the songs I talk about below are going on the playlist, but I’ve also added a few extra that I won’t talk about. These are songs that are also good, but I just don’t have anything to say about them.
Play the jingle!
Ethel - The Murder Capital
The Murder Capital released their third album, Blindness, the week I’m writing these words, so it seems a fitting place to begin. They are at the forefront of my thoughts right now, and have been for some months now, as the songs from the new album trickle out over the airways - because they’re basically all really good.
I was put onto The Murder Capital by my dear, aforementioned friend Sam. A certified Fontaines fanatic and a fellow lover of sad white men with guitars, it was only a matter of time before he found The Murder Capital. They are by far the most Fontaines-aligned band on this list I would say, to such an extent they probably get quite annoyed with such relentless comparisons such as this, one would imagine. Also from Dublin, also good at writing with great beauty and sincerity, they also recently partially adopted a nonsense change of look to suit the young people; although they release all their music on their own label, so at least they appear to have chosen to dress this way willingly. I think it's fair to say that their music is relatively intense. Their first album, When I Have Fears, was written after one of their friends committed suicide. Their second album, Gigi’s Recovery, from which Ethel is picked, almost managed to out-sad the first one. Apparently the band rejected the first draft of this album for being too depressing. The first song on Gigi’s Recovery is simply called Existence, so…yeah.
Interestingly (and I use that term liberally) I don’t find them that depressing to listen to. It’s all too structured and articulate, I think; doesn’t have the chaos and madness to be properly depressing. It also doesn’t help that when Sam and I went to see The Murder Capital do a set at Rough Trade in Shoreditch, the singer proved himself to just be the most wonderfully nice and charming man in the whole world. We pathetically fawned over his charisma in the pub afterwards. What a nice young man! And remember: charisma means you can’t be depressed!
I do find Ethel a bit emotional though. Without doing too much thinking about the lyrics, there does seem to be some reference to a fictional baby called Ethel, and - as an increasingly paternalistic guy - this enhances its beauty greatly. However, if you do want something a bit more accessible, I recommend starting with their new album, as an early listen suggests it’s a bit less gloomy (although there is a song on there about Shane McGowan’s funeral).
Chromo Sud - Robocobra Quartet
Fuck yeah! This is how I feel when I remember now about the existence of Robocobra Quartet and go in for a listen. Hell yeah!!! Yeahh!!!!! I do often forget they exist, because they basically don’t really sound like anyone else. I think their schtick is that they basically do a cool thing where they bring your favourite tenets of modern white guys with guitar music - squeaky saxophone played almost intentionally badly and spoken word vocals, all delivered by the drummer - and then do a kind of jazz-style drum beat thing behind.
But then I remember and it’s like: yeahh!!!!!!. Their most recent album, Living Isn’t Easy, is an absolute gem. There is a really fun song on there called Wellness, which basically mocks influencer “wellness” culture and will at least get a sensible chuckles, regardless of your musical taste.
I’m telling you this because my selection is a nine-minute epic called Chromo Sud. I picked this one not just because it's my favourite song off the album, but also because apparently it's about the housing crisis in Dublin. I know this because the singer always gives a little “this song is about…” introduction before every song when they play live, and also because a lot of the lyrics are him just repeating “shit house, shit flat” over and over again. It’s a subject I know little about, but I am aware that it sounds quite severe; almost absurdly so from the stories you hear. Indeed, I also know that The Murder Capital have got some things to say about the big city, which I can imagine has been ravaged by the same inequities that have ravaged so many other big cities around the world. You can Google the reasons yourself for this specific housing crisis, but I’m pretty confident it's Fontaines DC’s fault.
If this social consciousness isn’t enough for you, then I’m here to inform you that - much like The Murder Capital - the singer is also very charismatic and nice-seeming. Sure, you can say that I’m just simple and easily overawed by Irish men in bands, but whatever: I like nice men and I like charisma. Like it or not, I find it significantly aids my listening experience if I’ve got a vague notion that the people doing the music I’m listening to are top guys. Sue me!
Parful - Kneecap
It's hard to know where to begin when it comes to Kneecap, so let's start with three facts. 1) Kneecap are a Irish language rap group from Belfast. 2) They released an album in 2024 called Fine Art. 3) I am absolutely obsessed.
Some context: since 2023, I have developed a bit of an obsession with The Troubles. Obviously Northern Ireland is far more than this gruesome period of extended violence, but for me, it emerged as a sudden realisation that I know nothing about the serious conflict which took place in land which is technically part of the same country I live and grew up in, whilst I was living and growing up in it. Indeed, the fact that I am not unusual in not knowing any of the substantive details of The Troubles amongst mine or my parents’ generation is partly why I am so interested. Normally, people in countries have a semi-decent understanding of their own civil wars, but pretty much no one in England knows anything other than the fact that the IRA tried to get Margaret Thatcher. The fact we don’t learn about this in school I just find absolutely bananas. Indeed, this collective absence of knowledge/active disinterest is perhaps an indication of why the conflict took place…
I could veer severely off track by this point, so I’ll summarise. In 2023, I lanced this boil by visiting Belfast on the way to a wedding in Ireland, and read a very long, very dry book called Understanding the Troubles; which was, in effect, a very very long Wikipedia article. Since then, I would say I think about Gerry Adams at least once a week.
Anyway, Kneecap. I think they're interesting for lots of reasons.
Firstly, I like the Irish language thing. It's obviously cool for lots of reasons to do with identity, the connections that many people in Northern Ireland feel to the Republic, and the political associations that the language has taken on with independence from the UK and Irish reunification. However, there is also a fun (and less important) thing where Gaelic didn’t have an exact translation for the MDMA and other drugs, so Kneecap effectively invented one (3CAG, which stands for “three consonants and a vowel”) (note: Kneecap talk a lot about drugs, but in an interesting way. More discussion on this to follow).
Secondly, they talk about “the Northern Ireland situation” with a wonderful articulacy and lightness that I just think is really great. They are basically bringing the issue to audiences in the rest of the UK - mainly young people - who, as we have already established, didn’t up until this point really give a shit. They speak very openly about how Northern Ireland is effectively a continuing colonial project, and the ongoing effects of systemic inequality that is engendered in its foundations. They do it in a funny way. They don’t pretend to be all-knowing demagogues, but rather apply their ample talent and charisma to take the sting out of things.
Finally, they’re just great! As I’ve probably tried to explain before, I normally find the whole macho elements of rap music sometimes a bit tedious and grating, and if you told me about some music where some lads just sung about doing coke and going clubbing, I would probably smile politely and make a mental note to avoid at all costs. However, whether it's because Kneecap are actually good or just because they’ve caught me at a time when I'm being a tourist in their bloodied history, it all hits differently. There’s loads of songs to choose from, but I like Parful because its a great pop song and contains an archive recording from some kid explaining how Catholics and Protestants defy geographic divides by all going out clubbing on the weekends, and I like reconciliation. Sue me!
Alternatively, the singer from Fontaines DC appears on Better Way to Live, if you want to connect them to the cultural zeitgeist.
Hay Wrap - The Saw Doctors
Now then, here is some real Irish music. My wife Caroline has some Irish roots on her mum’s side, which has given me a handy insight and justification for my enthusiastic embrace of all things Irish (“MY WIFE IS ACTUALLY ONE QUARTER IRISH” I bellow to a stranger before I explain my thoughts on Irish reunification). If I really need to roll out the big guns to let someone know precisely how into Irish culture I am, I’ll whip out a reference The Saw Doctors.
Of course, I don’t actually know anything about The Saw Doctors, but I do know that they’re from County Mayo in the west of Ireland; which is where some of Caroline’s Irish side family are from, and where some of her family live now. For this reason, I have probably overestimated their cultural significance, but it seems to me they’re very much a big deal. At our wedding, one of the Irish contingent requested that their song N17 - about a road that goes through Mayo - be added to the background music playlist, before performing the same song during the karaoke section of the evening. Another suggested adding Hay Wrap - a song, as far as I can tell, is literally about bailing hay - but this was subtly ignored.
Playlist curation aside, the Saw Doctors are great fun. What I like about them most is that they seem to jokingly play up to some great Irish stereotypes. As far as I can tell, Irish people do actually have a sincere cultural connection in farming. I remember Caroline’s cousin telling me about some sort of ploughing competition - ploughing competition - which young people - young people - go to, and appears to be like their equivalent of Reading and Leeds Festival. Further, I’m reliably informed that the guitarist from Saw Doctors is coming to Caroline’s uncle’s birthday party in May, which confirms the stereotype that all Irish people know each other.
No but seriously, the Saw Doctors are great. They are incredibly fun, upbeat, and joyous, and maintain some of the traditions of Irish music without it being too quaint. I don’t know if Hay Wrap is actually a song about bailing hay, but if it is, good for them.