Released: 2024
It’s been an under the radar journey, but Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten over the last half decade or so become one of his generation’s finest songwriters. This hasn’t always been obvious – there were moments of the band’s 2019 debut Dogrel which spoke to a certain disposable quality to their material – but for one thing, the success that followed has expanded rather than narrowed the group’s horizons.
It wasn’t without irony that the final proof came in the form of his first solo album Chaos For The Fly. Crafted in the wake of a personal numbness which engulfed him after Skinty Fia‘s ascent to number one in both the UK and his native Ireland, it established him as a raconteur supreme, musically adding strings, beats and country flourishes whilst also riffing on Dylan, Cash and many other supposedly untouchables.
What this augured for 2024’s Romance few could second guess, but unexpectedly with Favourite Chatten reversed the process of mastering his art, offering up a tender and nuanced love song in posession of a disarming simplicity. How had we got to this point? Well, there had been a journey alright, one of which now it seemed the return part offered just as much reward as any other stop along the way.
The Voice Of Unreason 