Grian Chatten – Chaos For The Fly
[Partisan Records]
Chaos for the Fly, the debut solo album by Fontaines D.C’s Grian Chatten, takes its inspiration from an abandoned casino in North Dublin. Casinos are fascinating places and concepts. They are built on illusion and require a willingness of the gambler to indulge in said illusion. The illusion that this time you will win, that this is fair, that you can trust the croupier. Chaos for the Fly is built on similar illusions and an insistence on trust. Chatten has crafted a work that insists on its openness and honesty from behind clouded glass.
Chatten sings to someone near the listener, standing in the known-unknown peripheral. The themes he approaches, those of love and loss and the sharp edges we run against in simply being alive are handled with a lack of the personal that makes the universal ambiguous. Chatten invites us into a private world whilst keeping a foot in the doorway. But it offers a far from brittle starting point for what could be a great solo run for the artist.
The themes and ideas, though left incomplete, are approached with a soft wonder that can be hard to find and can often be left unappreciated. His distinctive poeticism offers creative perspectives and foundations for different ways of considering the world. Overall it is an album rooted in an aesthetic of life in all its pains and pleasures. Chaos for the Fly is an invitation to forego suspicion and embrace the illusion.
Words: Julie Landers
