Oh, God. Hi, everyone. Threetohony Cagtano here, the internet's busiest music nerd, and it's time for a review of this new Kneecap album, Fine Art.

Irish rap trio, Kneecap. They have been making quite a bit of noise on the Belfast scene for several years now, but it's only been recently that their buzz has gone global. There was a pretty well-received documentary about the group's rise to fame. Plus, they also made headlines earlier this year as one of the more notable groups to pull out of SXSW over the festival's ties to various military contractors. Why is a music festival doing sponsorships and various promotional connections with military contractors in the first place?

It should be no surprise as a result of all of this that Kneecap is pretty opinionated. Their reputation for putting their thoughts and feelings out there on social issues proceeds them. Especially when it comes to the topic of Irish rights and independence. I mean, the Balaclava on the cover of their new record here already speaks volumes, and the tracklist of this record is, in fact, peppered with references to various antics and public statements that have gotten the group in hot water in recent years.

I mean, the source for the title itself is in reference to a news report commentary on the unveiling of a mural that was supposed to be in promotion of Kneecap, but it pretty much just depicted a burning cop car. The trio can be confrontational with their point of view, but it's not exactly like the anticolonialist sentiments that lie underneath. All of that are warranted. I cite all of this to say that the group's music most definitely has an appeal outside of the context of all of this.

You don't need to be an expert on Irish politics or a full card-carrying member of the IRA to enjoy it and get what the group is on about. The language barrier on this record isn't even that impenetrable as the lyrics across the album are a pretty even mix of English and Irish Gaelic. And despite that lingual separation on various tracks of the record, there's actually a lot of lyrical focus going on with each track. And what's even more impressive is that the entire record itself progresses along a story. It's not a massive epic novel or work of fiction or anything like that, but there are narrative and theatrical little interludes interwoven in between many of the tracks that move us from theme to theme, concept to concept, plus shoulder to shoulder, each song idea and theme has an overlap conceptually with the following song, so it's easy to pass the baton on from one track to the next.

The intro to the record "3CAG" is not the title of the group's last album, but also an often used reference to MDMA that is made throughout this project. And yeah, this track is an epic and spacy start to the album overall. It's like a very atmospheric drill beat that's top with lots of plucky, weepy Irish folk instrumentation. Not a combo that I would say is working for me personally, but the track is a decent tone setter in terms of giving you an idea of culturally and esthetically where this record is going to be pulling from.

The title track, however, is a little bit more like it, in my opinion, with relentless rimes over yet another drill style beat that features a few cool and sharp transitions into some raver style kick drums and bass. Meanwhile, the bars on the track work in one of three ways. A general intro to the group for anybody who might be uninitiated, an update on where we last left them in their music and in their catalog. Meanwhile, other lines see the group trying to process and contextualize their newfound fame, being shocked at seeing the people around the world now who are currently into their music that they just couldn't have imagined. Even younger people and kids who they very clearly and boldly say on this track, they are not role models for, and maybe the kids shouldn't even be listening to their music.

Case in point, the fourth track on the record, "I bhFiacha Linne," which translates to something like "In Our Debt," which is a rowdy and aggressive grime-style banger, which makes me really worried about anybody who might owe the group some money because throughout the track, we have very snied and exaggerated portrayals of people making excuses for why they don't have the cash they owe them. And also following this, descriptions of the horrible and violent fates that befall these people for not having the money, complete with booming stomp sound effects on the chorus.

Following this, "I'm Flush" keeps the energy high with a just banging electropunk ranger. And yes, carrying over thematically from the previous track. This song is all about feeling good, riding on a high because you have some money in your pocket now and you're also doing multiple lines of coke. It's one of the most electrifying anthems on the record, and I love the attention to detail in the lyrics, too, as the group is just taking you through a series of very intense and fast-moving events and emotions.

And for every action, there is a reaction on this record, which is why the following full song on the LP, "A Better Way to Live," is a more contemplative moment, pretty much about the downsides of constantly being high and drunk and chasing after a bliss or a better life in a sense. It's a song about missing that, not having that, and trying to fill that void essentially with just being inebriated.

From here we go into a bit of a softer side, a mental health angle for the album. "Sick in the Head" goes in this direction as well, topically and instrumentally. It's really a huge Boom Bap style cut, which, of course, further increases the stylistic diversity of the record. Yeah, this song, lyrically, is pretty much all about just having this internal struggle over fame and money and success and trading that for your own mental health and mental stability. It's a bit of an angel and devil on your shoulder telling you two different things moment. And look, while I know on this track, the group may not, rap-wise, come across as slick or as smooth as your favorite '90s rappers, of course.

I will say what Kneecap doesn't have in technical skill, they very much make up for in personality, storytelling ability, a lot of energy and a lot of character. On the following cut on this LP, we have "Love Making," which is an attempt at a flirty two-step style dance cut that's about hooking up with a fan after a show. And certainly the intentions are there, but I think the group lacks a bit of a collective finesse to pull a song like this and have it not sound maybe a bit too brutish. Yeah, the sexiness of this track, I think, leaves something to be desired. But I do have to admit there is something at least a little bit entertaining about hearing them careen through a song of this topic like a bull in a fucking China shop.

From here, the energy rises, as does the debauchery once again on "Drug Dealing Pagans," which is a cut that I think could have been catchier, especially given just all of the woodwind sampled into the beat that gives it a pretty distinct character. But yeah, the spoken word style chorus breaks on the track I found to be just maybe a bit too repetitive and tedious. Maybe would have worked better as an intro and then work an actual proper chorus into the track. I do love the turn the record takes narratively after this point, though, as we are in the pub once again and we are witnessed to an exchange between the group and some British upper class sounding twit, pretty much a character of a guy who's trying to get them to come back to London to record a track that win them some awards and maybe some commercial success, too. And this trip, this geographical transition, leads to a song that is all about one of the members getting lost in London during a coke binge, of course. The track is fun, it's fast-paced, it's intense. And I just love how the group continues to balance song and story so well across the record because in terms of rhythm and music and chorus, it's really sharp, it's catchy, it's straightforward, and yet the group still manages to work in a narrative that keeps you on the edge of your seat.

Thematically, the following track, "Parful," is maybe a bit too on the nose for my taste, but it's an admirable attempt at exploring raving and partying and electronic music as a means of easing tensions between groups of Irish youth who grew up in the context of the sectarian violence of The Troubles." Rhino Ket" is essentially a story song, again, about a ketamine heist that I feel like is more narrative than It is musical as a result. I'm not as game on it, but I do appreciate how this song sets things up for the final track, which, again, explores themes of success, overdoing it, having some reservations about living life in such an extreme way.

I can say, while I wasn't necessarily crazy about the start of this record, the finish is pretty solid with these very dramatic and passionate group vocals, showing the group in a context that is more vulnerable than you would think, given how the album started off. But yeah, while I didn't love this record overall, and I felt like some tracks, esthetically and narratively and musically, work better than others, there's still a lot of character and personality and incredible high points all over this album that show the group at a level of creativity and conceptuality that transcends the genres they operate in themselves, and I think will make them a group worth watching very closely in the coming years.

I'm feeling a strong 7 on this record

Anthony Fantano, kneecap of forever.