“F*ckin’ brilliant.” Those were my words after pressing play on the new video and song from Fontaines DC, the best new band out of Ireland in a hell of a long time.
Big is just 1 minute and forty-five seconds long, but in that time it delivers urgent blow after blow. Yes. It’s a knockout.
The video bears a wet Irish resemblance to Massive Attack’s Unfinished Sympathy, insofar as it’s shot in one take, on the street, but in this case rather than Shara Nelson singing we get a Dr Marten wearing 11-year-old lip syncing to the lyrics near to Poundland and Paddy Power. There’s a danger of romanticising any city (particularly one like Dublin with all of its literary greats and history) but with a video like this it shows the bands commitment to keeping reality in check.
“We felt that great ambition was a sickness, and we got Grian's 11 year next-door neighbour to say it to you all because he's got the presence of a hundred frontmen,” say the band of the film.
There’s something about the raw impassioned poetic way that lead vocalist Grian Chatten delivers his words on every track that is utterly captivating and even after just 1 play of Big it’s easy to imagine crowds of indie rock kids (and adults) becoming heavily invested in his words. “Dublin city in the rain is mine, a pregnant city with a Catholic mind,” he opens with and I can just imagine the audience mouthing it back at him.
That is why I had no hesitation as naming Fontaines DC as one of my Ones to Watch for 2019 last November. With a debut album Dogrel due on 12th April (which you can pre-order now on CD or fancy yellow vinyl now by clicking here), a whole host of sold out dates and a new Winter tour just announced (you can grab a ticket by clicking here), there’s still a lot to come from this lot.
To repeat. F*ckin’ brilliant.
Fontaines DC - Big (Video)
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