What do you mean, Fontaines D.C. haven’t dropped their second album of the year? No, now it’s time for another impressive debut from a hot Dublin post-punk group, The Murder Capital. The Post-Punk revival is most definitely in full swing.
James McGovern’s forthright vocals have something of the Grian Chatten about them, but we’re not going to say the two bands are indistinguishable. The Murder Capital’s music has less of a Celtic punk feel – it’s less Pogues-y, for a start. It’s Dublin alright, but by way of Manchester, Bromley and even New York.
The blunt poetry of their lyrics is what connects them. It’s what connects most of the genre really. It’s an existential view of the world that targets the frail structures that govern our society. They hold a mirror to the ludicrous nature of the things we abide by every day, without thinking, without reflecting.
It even goes a bit proto-goth in places. ‘Slowdance I’ and ‘II’ evoke Joy Division. Give them a listen, and your inner angsty Unknown Pleasures T-shirt-wearing teen will be itching to come out.
The punk and post-punk scenes across the UK and Ireland are on fire right now, but The Murder Capital might be the blaze that makes more people sit up and notice this is a movement. It increasingly clear that in our mad post-fact, post-truth world, musicians are taking to the ethos of pulling away from society to throw stones at it and laugh from afar. That’s what we need right now.
Haiku Review
Punk for the next-gen,
Now storming onto the scene.
Skip at your peril.
Listen to The Murder Capital on Spotify and Apple Music. Find merch, gig tickets and news on their website.
