The mighty Fontaines D.C. are warming up to the release of their much anticipated second album ‘A Heroes Death’ on 31 July 2020 (through Partisan Records) with another tasty morsel: ‘Televised Mind’.
Providing a thicker more complex sound palette, ‘Televised Mind’ maintains the almost stream of consciousness poetic exhortations of singer Grian Chatten, building and underlining his words with a repetition that blends with the droning canvas. Chatten says of the song:
This song is about the echo chamber, and how personality gets stripped away by surrounding approval. People’s opinions get reinforced by constant agreement, and we’re robbed of our ability to feel wrong. We’re never really given the education of our own fallibility. People feign these great beliefs in order to appear trendy, as opposed to independently arriving at their own thoughts.
We were listening to a lot of The Prodigy and The Brian Jonestown Massacre, specifically their song “Open Heart Surgery”. I was interested in extrapolating those types of chord progressions and capturing this droning, hypnotic feel. That last line repeated over and over [“What ya call it”] is a buffer expression that people used here in Dublin. It’s sort of like “umm” or “well…” – it’s what people say when they’re distracted.”
The accompanying video, directed by Hugh Mulhern, is simple and effective, delivered with the same brash intensity of the band:
This is one album I’m looking forward to hearing after their blistering debut ‘Dogrel’ last year.
Fontaines D.C. have also announced a run of Spring 2021 UK tour dates, including a show at London’s Alexandra Palace on 27th May, their biggest UK headline show to date. Dates are as follows:
7th May – Manchester Academy
10th May – Leicester De Montfort Hall
11th May – Leeds O2 Academy
12th May – Newcastle O2 City Hall
14th May – Glasgow Barrowland
17th May – Cambridge Corn Exchange
18th May – Sheffield O2 Academy
20th May – Birmingham O2 Academy
21st May – Cardiff Great Hall
22nd May – Bristol O2 Academy
24th May – Bournemouth O2 Academy
25th May – Southampton O2 Guildhall
27th May – London Alexandra Palace
Tickets will go on sale Friday 3rd July at 9AM BST – at fontainesdc.com, metropolismusic.com, seetickets.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
I’ve seen them live: they are phenomenal.
Feature Photograph: Ellius Grace
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