Debut albums can be a tricky business. A band that wants to put their best foot forward can often find themselves mired in cliche and riddles, so intent on being perceived a particular way that they ultimately end up tangled in platitudes.
That’s not to say that The Murder Capital’s debut suffered such a fate. Although the Dublin-based band clearly, and arguably, correctly, place a heavy import on image, 2019′s When I Have Fears managed to strike a seamless balance of substance and style.
Their emergence about the same time as Fontaines DC – and the subsequent parallels and comparisons drawn between both bands – proved both a blessing and a curse, although they have since taken divergent paths.
On Gigi’s Recovery, James McGovern and his bandmates come across like the Virgin Prunes to Fontaines DC’s U2; altogether weirder, more willingly “arty” and undeniably outre, although they still fundamentally plunder from the same highbrow post-punk well.
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There is more than one unexpected key change or errant chord structure to jolt the listener here. The woozy, nightmarish swell of opener Existence sets the tone beautifully; the off-kilter guitars, twitchy beat and slow, swoonsome build of Crying is a highlight, while the quirky tuning of Ethel brings a skewed take to a bustling indie rock anthem.
[ The Murder Capital: ‘We just couldn’t talk to each other. Trust was a huge issue’Opens in new window ]
There is a nervous energy to these songs that is only momentarily halted by plodding ballad Belonging, but a gloomy atmosphere pervades throughout: if there’s no dry ice available when The Murder Capital tour this album, there will be, well, murder.
Elsewhere, Return My Head, Only Good Things and standout track A Thousand Lives offer a more straightforward structure, with McGovern’s enjoyable rumbling baritone the linchpin for each track. In places, there are traces of Morrissey, Ian McCulloch, Dave Gahan and even Scott Walker to his delivery.
The Corkman’s lyrics are less easy to determine. Occasionally they are thoughtful, even poetic; but on songs such as The Lie Becomes the Self – “I heard you’re selling thoughts in which you don’t believe” – they sound like the painfully overwrought notebook musings of an art school student.
At every corner, the band’s influences are apparent: this time, the likes of Depeche Mode are audible among the perennials of Echo and the Bunnymen, Joy Division and The Smiths. Is that a good or a bad thing? The Murder Capital are clearly a very good band, who have made a very good second album – they’re just not an entirely original one. themurdercapital.com
