The Dublin poet, performer and producer David Balfe returns after his 2021 self-titled debut, less about specific grief, more powered with with rich, articulate anger and gnarly narratives highlighting injustice, poverty, high rents in his home city and dysfunctional modern life across an energised and emotional soundtrack. The opening title track builds from intricate electronica to a surge of sound, with Balfe’s deep, powerful delivery describing a sense of loss and change but also defiance: “I've crawled back through the cracks in my own mind / Retraced the memories all long lost to the cruelty of time / Back to a life before boredom, stress, and rent/ When whole summers and lovers were etched in wet cement … ‘Holy mother of sweet jaysus lord save us’ / I've heard that same line a thousand times/ And remember exactly what we left behind.” Each track builds on highly emotional settings, whether fuelled by loss or a sense of being trapped, from the melancholy grief of No Quiet from the perspective of a woman gradually losing her mother, father, and next her brother from different causes. No Scheme concentrates on the housing crisis and financial traps - “The lads from my teens all made peace with their scenes/ They gave up on their dreams to move their Ma out the scheme/ No silver, gold and green, life above their means/ Driven mad by phone scams and everyday still spent on …” The Ox/The Afters is one of the standouts, telling the story of a fallen hardman who falls into decline from drinking (“The Ox, the big man from down the block / He boxed, and wared, and drank, and roared/ But was built from golden stock…”). Mirror highlights the “cunting blackshirts” who promote nationalistic beliefs to the workers they exploit. But perhaps the most moving number, No Sorrows, brings in the the voice of an old lady repeating the phrase “Stay at home here in Ireland and I'll never see you dispersed / That she used to tell me” before Balfe launches in with the gritty “Stay here in Ireland with the chains that bind your chest / Your eyes are bloodshot red when you're looking at the rents / Your past alive in wet cement.” A visceral, rage-filled and pull-no-punches portrait of Ireland struggling with economic upheaval and social ills, filled with love, grief, regret, melancholy and no shortage of passion from a very talented and unique voice. Out on September Recordings
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