I was on my way to the pub, cantering down a country pathway with the golden evening sun flickering through the tree line. This ultimately ended up being the perfect backdrop to Grian Chatten’s debut record Chaos For The Fly. The Fontaines D.C. lead has broken down a perhaps boisterous and charged public image, trading it in for a more evidently reflective, sentimental attitude within his writing.
I was surprised when the record’s first single ‘The Score’ dropped pretty much out of nowhere. Incorporating a Nick Drake-esque acoustic line, Chatten later brings in a drum machine which gives us a good idea of Chaos For The Fly’s electronic flavours. I also found Chattens harmonising in the chorus enjoyable, giving us the certainty that he’ll be using his voice very differently from how we’re used to.
‘Last Time Every Time Forever’ informs us of the record’s liberal use of beautiful orchestral lines. It continues with the kind of mystifying nature that ‘The Score’ set up. A lot of this track’s elements also hark back to ‘Sunny’, one of Fontaines’ more delicate numbers from 2020’s A Hero’s Death.
Next is ‘Fairlies’, which in its short two months as a single has already racked up over a million Spotify streams. It’s not hard to see why. The instrumentation is full of life, as is Chatten’s register. Everything comes together to sound like a modern-day take on The Pogues’ Rum Sodomy & The Lash, a likely comparison given Chatten’s highly poetic style – “But you went and fell in love, and into love you fell”. Just when you think it’s over, the song ends with a final squall of strings and piano, for me a highlight on Chaos.
‘Bobs Casino’ has Chatten’s fiancée Georgie Jesson prominently on backing vocals – I’ve seen some likening their relationship on the record to that of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra. For me, this was a point in the record where its dreamy and equally timeless nature reached its peak, making it one of my favourites.
On the record’s third single, ‘All Of The People’, the themes and the tone are hand-in-hand more sombre than we’ve previously seen. This further aids the exploration of ‘the other side’ to Chatten’s voice, which at this point has become genuinely distinctive within its genre and probably beyond too. The track is probably the most stripped-back and perhaps even reclusive we’ve ever seen Chatten before.
‘East Coast Bed’ alludes to trip-hop acts à la Groove Armada with its lo-fi drum beat. The horn solo mid-way through only solidifies this and the tune concludes with an ambient, bright, synth-driven climax. It seems Chatten is singing about his ‘rock’ (ie. Jesson) with lyrics like “You’re always gonna be the baseline, every time I look around”. Equally, Chatten perhaps reveals a self-awareness and honesty with the nature of his ‘job’ – “And if you have to go, that’s alright, that’s the way it’s got to be”.
Chatten’s folk influences once again come into full light on ‘Salt Throwers off a Truck’. As with ‘Couple Across the Way’ on Fontaines D.C.’s 2022 album Skinty Fia, you could be tricked into believing ‘Salt Throwers’ is a generations-old pub ballad. Chatten chants “When February came it came straight for New York, any colder – they said – we’ll be skating to work”.
Things turn slightly more Western on ‘I Am So Far’ with the brief inclusion of a harmonica and more notably a guitar tone ripped straight out of an Ennio Morricone score. The melodies are catchy but I may struggle to recall this tune later down the road compared to some of the record’s other moments.
A decidedly wistful ending to Chaos For The Fly, ‘Season for Pain’ speaks of how “this is no season for loving”. It’s worth reiterating the honesty that Chatten is exuding across the record – as he put it himself, some of the tunes are “dark alleys” that he has only managed to cordon off by writing them.
Chaos For The Fly is without a doubt very promising and very exciting – it’s dark, beautiful and contemplative. But this is equally very unsurprising when you consider how strongly Grian Chatten has proved himself since Fontaines D.C. entered the spotlight. Beyond the record itself, there is also something greatly admirable about this new side of Chatten we are seeing.
9/10
