An old song about being rewarded says “Silence has it, arrogance has it”. Whatever “it” is, Irish quintet The Murder Capital seem to be in posession of large quantities. Music’s hype cycle now picks artists up and spits them out in what feels like record time, such that many seem to come from almost nowhere and end up there just as quickly. But like their counterparts Fontaines DC this is a band who, on the evidence of When I Have Fears, deserve our full attention.
There is a potency here as with few other albums you will hear in 2019. Sure, there are one or two bristling post punk archetypes (Feeling Fades, More Is Less) to get the boys down the front going, but these are interlopers, Horses of Troy. Once fully inside singer James McGovern and co.’s world there is no alternative but complete immersion, the one-two of Slowdance a study in power and control, Green and Blue a damaged, mournful soliloquy.
Even with perspective, the art-for-art’s sake philosophy that underpins The Murder Capital’s approach seems like a cliche, but When I Have Fears carries the weight of it’s sincerity with ease, right down to the broken idiosyncracy of How The Streets Adore Me Now with it’s oddly saturated ambience. To have the confidence to include such an oddity on your debut album shows enourmous ambition, one which as the old song goes, may ultimately mean they will have learn to accept their reward.
You can read a full review here.
The Voice Of Unreason 
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