Grian Chatten CHAOS FOR THE FLY. Partisan Records

CHAOS FOR THE FLY is the debut solo album from Grian Chatten, vocalist of Dublin’s critically-acclaimed band Fontaines D.C. Rare moments of respite from a relentless touring schedule afforded Chatten the opportunity to start work on something for himself, occupying a completely different headspace from his hugely successful work within Fontaines D.C. Co-produced by the band’s longstanding producer Dan Carey, the album is arguably the most poetic we’ve heard from Chatten. Each song here has a sweep of colour and textures that breathe life into his lucid tales. Over its nine tracks, CHAOS FOR THE FLY is a record that takes in all of life’s rich and diverse emotions.

Grian explains: “All of the people is the stiff collar tight-fisted hand to the grindstone written where all is blue and everyone is a liar. It is a line of chalk scratched around the world.”

“I was walking along Stoney Beach at night and it came to me on the waves,” recalls Chatten. “I just stood there and looked at them and I heard the whole fucking thing. Every part of it, from the chord progressions to the string arrangements.”

The resulting songs could have been taken, shaped and reimagined with his bandmates in Fontaines D.C., but Chatten decided to treat these differently.

“I just thought: I want to do this myself. I know where we as a band are going next and that’s not where I want to go with this. I’ve got a couple of exaggerated aspects of my soul that I wanted to express,” he says.

“The rest of the band are all creative and songwriters in their own right, too. I didn’t want to go to them and be like, ‘No, every single thing has to be like this.’ I didn’t want to compromise with these songs in that way.”

“A lot of the album was written with just me and a guitar and I really like the idea of it being boiled down to those elements. That feeling of having the song in the palm of your hand, that control of having it with just you and a guitar,” he says. “There’s an intensity as a result of that.”

Review

Chatten has created an enigmatic album with strong melodies and good lyrics which reveal much more of the character and thoughts of the Fontaines D.C. band leadman. His vocals are matter-of-fact, conversational and honest. Much of the music here is downbeat and slow-paced with sparse instrumentations including several lazy snare drum moments. ‘The Score’ opens proceedings with some distant digital sounds before the Simon & Garfunkel style vocal enters quietly and with great contemplation backed by gently plucked guitar. It’s lovely with instrumentation and backing vocals that are beautifully judged. ‘Last Time Every Time Forever’ ups the pace with a vocal that seems like it’s coming from a deep tunnel. Lyrically it’s up with the best here: “All my words fail me now/And I have seen it all/And I have no doubt that an alonely thing you surely are could be the fixture made in a face down bar.”

‘Bob’s Casino’ sounds like something out of a 50s musical while ‘All The People’ with its subtle piano backing, solemn vibe, angelic backing vocals, beautiful string moments and strong melody wins my award for the best here (and probably one of the most moving tracks of the year so far). Fans will love this album and for a first solo effort I rate it highly and especially because it’s so distinctive.

4/5

Album Track List

The Score
Last Time Every Time Forever
Fairlies
Bob’s Casino
All Of The People
East Coast Bed
Salt Throwers Off A Truck
I Am So Far
Season For Pain

GRIAN CHATTEN - NEW SINGLE: ‘ALL OF THE PEOPLE’
STREAM ON ALL SERVICES HERE: https://grianchatten.lnk.to/AOTP
WATCH THE VIDEO HERE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PZ72bb51ebE
PRE-ORDER/SAVE HERE: https://grianchatten.lnk.to/chaos

https://www.grianchatten.com