Day 312: Fontaines D.C. – Skinty Fia
I thought I’d do my second Fontaines D.C. album today, I’ve had a real hankering to listen to more of their stuff after I loved Romance so much on day 110. I’ve been thinking about how much I’d like to witness some sort of a rock music phenomenon today and then I don’t really listen to one of the best rock bands around today, go figure. Today’s album is their 2022 release, Skinty Fia.
Album cover courtesy of Partisan Records
Skinty Fia is Fontaine’s D.C.’s third album, and it reached number 1 in the charts in both the UK and Ireland. It also earned the band a Brit Award for Best International Group. The name of the album comes from an old Irish term that’s used to sort of swear without really swearing, with the term “Skinty Fia” meaning “the damnation of the deer.”
The story of the opening track is absolutely bonkers: a 73-year-old Irish woman called Margaret who was living in Coventry, England died, and her family wanted the words “In ár gCroithe go deo” on her headstones, which means “in our hearts forever”. However, the court of the Church of England ruled that it would be provocative or political to have a Gaelic phrase on an Irish woman’s headstone without an English translation. The band met with her family at her grave when they’d written the song and got the family’s approval.
It fits with the wider theme of the album of exploring questions of identity when living in a foreign country, and especially as Irishmen who live in England. The story above didn’t happen decades ago, Margaret died in 2018 and the family got their legal victory in 2021, after three years of fighting – the band saw this as a good example of the attitudes that are still prevalent in England:
I just felt like I was looking down the barrel of the gun, of going to this country that doesn’t really welcome people who are Irish. It still considers people from Ireland something not to be trusted and threatening. A lot of the album is built upon that experience, that feeling. Something we’ve experienced a lot over here in London.
The sound of the album is grittier and darker than what I’d heard from them before, which is to be expected with the theme of the album. It’s almost paranoid-sounding with this air of pressure to it that doesn’t necessarily make it a pleasure to listen to, but it’s still a great album. And it doesn’t shy away from the darkness that it’s exploring - “Jackie Down the Line” is a good example of how dark and suffocating it can feel, with its lyrics of pain and suffering, and yet it’s still a very good song.
They’re a great band, it’s a great album. I liked it less than Romance, but it’s still very good. And they’ve only released four so far, who knows what they’ll do in the future? Skinty Fia is an 8.5/10.