Review: The Murder Capital

For The Murder Capital, this third album represented a crucial challenge.

After the impressive “Gigi's Recovery”, which had consecrated them among the brightest promises of contemporary post-punk, the expectations were very high to see if the Dublinese band could somehow support the fellow citizens Fontaines DC

The frontman James McGovern had called “Gigi's Recovery” as “an overwritten disc” and had expressed the desire to create songs that “piss out of the vase”. The result is “Blindness”, an album with a strong geographical sense, born from a band scattered between Ireland, London and Europe, but forged in the feverish energy of three weeks of sessions in Los Angeles. The production of John Congleton, already at the helm of the previous album, has focused everything on spontaneity: no demo, no stratifications, only the search for an essential freshness.

The album opens with Moonshot, A sound bullet that could deceive and give the wrong impression of an album full of energetic post-punk banger.
Words Lost Meaning It is a highlight, dark but perfectly catchy and embodies the dark heart of the disc: a line of sinuous bass, dense guitars such as smoke, disturbing keyboards that intertwine in a hypnotic melody. Can't Pretend to Knowone of the singles and one of my favorite songs, relaunches with a vortex of sharp guitars and pounding rhythms.

A distant life It introduces an indie rock digression that, albeit pleasant, breaks the flow of the disc.
Born Into the Fight It oscillates between introspection and explosive tension, without finding a definitive balance. Love of Country It is a fresco of over six minutes recorded in direct taking: a dry manifesto on the thin border between patriotism and nationalism, with McGovern in a state of lyric grace.

The disc continues with The Fall A convulsive hymn, an adrenaline race in which guitars move between chaotic impetus and surgical sobriety. Death of a Gianttribute to Shane Macgowan, is an evocative portrait which however stops on the threshold of true emotional depth.

The last three tracks of the album sett out in an increasingly rarefied dimension. Swallow introduces delicate psychedelic reflections, while That feeling It moves between unstable reverberations and, guitars that echo to care, new wave batteries and a sang suspended between nihilism and existential affirmation. Trailing in Wing He closes the disc with a sense of complete decline, leaving the listener suspended in a disarming beauty.

Each new listening to “blindness” reveals new details, hidden layers that resurface as fragments of memory. A job that moves away from the immediate urgency of the post-punk to embrace a meditative darkness, a less predictable but more necessary path.

To listen immediately

Can't pretend to know – Love of Country – That feeling

To skip immediately

Absolutely nothing. In a loop continuously.

Score: 8.00

Moonshot – 7.75 vote
Words Lost Meaning – Vote 8.00
Can't pretend to know – 8.50 vote
A Distant Life – 7.50 vote
Born Into The Fight – 8.00 vote
Love of Country – 8.00 vote
The Fall – 7.75 vote
Death of a Giant – 7.50 vote
Swallow – 7.50 vote
That feeling – 8.00 vote
Trailing in Wing – 8.00 vote