Photo credit: Richard Dumas
Fontaines D.C. have announced details of their new album ‘A Hero’s Death’ (out on 31 July via Partisan Records) and shared the video for its title track. Directed by Hugh Mulhern and starring Aidan Gillan (The Wire, Peaky Blinders, Game of Thrones) as an American talk host battling with inner demons, the video complements the song’s themes and its examination of ‘the battle between happiness and depression, and the trust issues that can form tied to both of those feelings’.
A clatter of drums opens the song as Grian Chatten repeats the words ‘Life ain’t always empty’ in an almost hypnotic trance. The title came from a line in a play by Brendan Behan and the song was written when Grian was worrying if he’d be able to follow up last year’s critically acclaimed ‘Dogrel album’. There are positive messages scattered throughout the stop-start post punk stylings (‘Tell your mother that you love her and go out of your way for others’) but also tips on the importance of preserving your mental health as there’s a rise in intensity: ‘Sink as far down as you can be pulled up’; ‘Don’t sacrifice your life for your health’, ‘When you speak, speak sincere. And believe me friend, everyone will hear’.
