The Irish Post-Punks are back again with another strong album.

The Murder Capital are not so much a band as they are a mood… There is always an edge to them, a sense of impending intensity. That is not to say they don’t have tunes too, because they do, but these are not simple guitar tunes and James McGovern is not simply a singer. They are an energy, a vibe… quite often a darkish tinged one that deals with introspection and emotional turmoil. They are Fontaines D.C. if everyone decided not to listen to anything else but Joy Division for a couple of years and went a little bit mad in the process.

Opening with ‘Moonshot’ the distortion is already dialled up and the drums are insistent. ‘Words Lost Meaning’ has been the best received of the singles in terms of streams, possibly because of the strong chorus, drifting closest to a mainstream rock tune or a 90s grunge anthem. There are always a couple of standout monster tracks on Murder Capital albums. On ‘When I Have Fears’ they were ‘More is Less’ and ‘Don’t Cling to Life.’ On Gigi’s Recovery ‘Return My Head’ was the runaway winner. On this new album ‘The Fall’ is the intense beating heart of this album, the best of the four singles put out ahead of the album release. It is a huge slab of energy with a woozy, swooning guitar hook. It might be my all-time favourite Murder Capital track.

‘Can’t Pretend to Know’ was another good single, and the new one just ahead of the album, ‘A Distant Life’ is as close as they get to uplifting and cheery. ‘Born Into the Fight’ has an ‘Amnesiac’ era Radiohead vibe about it.

This is not a perfect album, several of the tracks are fairly forgettable and it doesn’t carry the same constant intensity of their debut, ‘When I have Fears.’ It is a very decent listen though and will satisfy any fan of the band. For the unconverted there are strong tracks here to add to a best of playlist.

They are doing record stores over the next week ahead of a tour in April. They have also been announced as support to Queens of the Stone Age on one of their two Rock N’ Roll Circus dates on August 28th.