Album Review: Blindness by The Murder Capital

With their latest album, Blindness, they continue to process and move beyond their sources, honing their own brand of volatile pop - hooky songs garbed in often raggedy, often riotous instrumentation, and delivered via James McGovern's chameleonic voice. "Words Lost Meaning" is a buoyant yet grungy, affable yet sneery, and slacker yet fatalistic earworm. Instrumentation pivots between drones and welters.

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Yeah, the fall is comin' Back in 2023, following a solid debut, The Murder Capital released an impressive sophomore LP and I felt ready to crown them one of the most promising acts of the current post-punk landscape. That album, Gigi's Recovery, managed to combine a sense of nocturnal urban menace with hefty doses of melody, all presented within creative song structures. There were still some flaws present, sure, but as a relatively new act, it marked a massive show of promise. Reading through the promotional materials for Blindness, the follow-up release, it's abundantly clear that the musicians themselves were less enamored of their previous work than this reviewer was.

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Where The Murder Capital's debut, 'When I Have Fears' (2019), delivered poetic post-punk melancholy, the follow-up, 'Gigi's Recovery' (2023), showcased atmospheric introspection. 'Blindness' marks a bold step forward, presenting a dynamic, eclectic project brimming with self-confidence. They haven't entirely left their staple sound behind, though, harking back on tracks like 'Moonshot', 'Can't Pretend To Know', or 'Death of a Giant'.

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Back in the late 2010's, The Murder Capital - together with Fontaines D.C. - became the poster boys for a new generation of Irish post punk bands. But that's not to say that the Dublin five-piece wished to have their sound simplified by this tag. They boldly changed things up on 2023's ‘Gigi's Recovery’ for a mournful and introspective portrayal of self-discovery and recovery.

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The Dublin-spawned post-punk quintet's third long-player picks up precisely where 2023's Gigi's Recovery left off, but with a leaner, hungrier edge. Road-hardened by a busy touring schedule, the band's songs of rage and razor-sharp aggression are delivered with taut, disciplined urgency, never more so than on maniacal opener Moonshot and the cacophonous sneer of Can't Pretend To Know. More contemplative hues colour Love Of Country (a Neil Young folk-rock chug examining the blurred line between patriotism and xenophobia) and semi-ballad Trailing The Wing's tentative navigation of the war-torn terrain of a difficult romance.

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