More about: The Murder Capital

In the natural order of things, bands follow a standard timeline: Get to know each other, form a band (these two stages are interchangeable), hone your craft, write songs that will appeal, unleash on the public. A tried and tested method.

Not so much for The Murder Capital. Although the Dublin five-piece formed at college and found success and acclaim with 2019 debut When I Have Fears, the album was released within 9 months of their knowing each other and, by their own admission, they only became firm friends during the pandemic. In tandem, the tortuous months of isolation afforded the group the opportunity for merciless self-evaluation, while guitarists Cathal Roper and Damien Tuit invested in new FX pedals and synths to expand their sound.

Money well spent. While When I Have Fears was equally blistering and urgent, Gigi’s Recovery offers more varied textures and sonic experimentation. Comeback single ‘A Thousand Lives’, with its scratchy, trip-hop percussion, shimmering synths and arch guitar licks, set the standard last year, each instrument revealing itself slowly across the course of the song before a snarling outro. Likewise ‘Crying’, on which scaling and queasily dipping violas precede purposeful drums and a bruising bass, as the group work their way through the gears. Virtually all of the tracks follow this pattern of building as they go, almost a musical metaphor for the burgeoning relationships between the members of the group.

The sense of momentum also allows the songs the space to breathe which, in turn, allows singer James McGovern to bravely expose his innermost thoughts: “I always wanted it to be like this for us, strung out on love, alive in the city,” he sings on ‘Ethel’, almost consumed by his own lyrics. Where he starts as subtly passionate, he later becomes explicitly so, as the song becomes a maelstrom of stoic guitar and unnerving strings. 

"Gigi’s Recovery is an immersive and cathartic album, euphoric and desolate in equal measure..."

Elsewhere, on the pensive ‘Belonging’, McGovern is isolated, almost acapella against nearly imperceptible, twinkling tones, while on the skewed electronica of ‘The Stars Will Leave Their Stage’, his baritone voice is set against a woozy chorus, as the track threatens to launch into space but, just this once, tethers itself to the ground.

Yet while McGovern takes centre-stage and the guitarists broaden the sound, drummer Diarmuid Brennan is the foundation who allows his colleagues to fly; understated throughout the album but imperative. He rolls the skins alongside the piano on ‘The Lie Becomes The Self’ while providing the gusto required on the bombastic current single ‘Return My Head’.

The Murder Capital at their most visceral, the track best represents the step up the quintet are making as they attempt to blow their competitors away. Comparisons to the Killers have been made, but a better reference point is fellow Dubliners U2 (who, let’s face it, the Las Vegas group have always tried to be). Indeed, like Bono and the boys, McGovern and co may be a little too sincere and po-faced at times, but there can be no doubting their intent or application, especially on the windswept ‘We Had To Disappear’ where the (BIG) guitars practically scream ‘The Edge’.

Gigi’s Recovery is an immersive and cathartic album, euphoric and desolate in equal measure and a perfect soundtrack to the hope and sadness keenly felt at this time of year. Superb.

Gigi's Recovery arrives 20th January

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More about: The Murder Capital