“Poetry”, as Seamus Heaney once said, “is language in orbit”. Kneecap raised their glass and opened their debut record – one of the few rap albums in the Irish language – by deadpanning: “I am going to be so high today / Cause there’s nothing more I’d rather do.” From that line onwards, the sheer centrifugal force of the Belfast trio’s irresistible charisma and candour is what keeps sucking you into the madcap world of Fine Art.
Kneecap have one mission: to encourage more people to learn Irish. But their strategy isn’t to make an intricate, conscious rap album like modern-day Ceandearg Lamar; it’s to blast your face off with banger after banger about, well, banger. ‘I’m Flush’ is a raging drum and bass cut that sees them delight in their newfound money, ‘Rhino Ket’ and its leg-trembling tale takes its cues from old-school trance, and ‘Parful’ is a straight-up UK bass anthem.
Of course, there are only so many songs about being off your face until it starts to get repetitive. ‘Drug Dealing Pagans’ is a medieval spin on smoking weed featuring linguist Manchán Magan, but whose tooting flutes are a bit too cartoonish to bear. By the time you sift through all 18 songs to arrive at album closer ‘Way Too Much’, the cheesy gospel choir is enough to make one’s eyes roll to the back of their head (sober, of course).
But probe underneath all the hedonism, and Kneecap make explicit why this is the case: singles ‘Sick In The Head’ and ‘Better Way To Live’ are clear that it’s a symptom of the intergenerational trauma that still pervades Belfast. Kneecap are part of the Ceasefire babies who grew up in the wake of the 90s peace process, where people are killed not by bombs but by a disturbing wave of suicides. In a city where ‘peace walls’ still loom over suburbs, sectarian violence is still very real, but Kneecap reminds the listener what binds everyone is the shared experience of oppression from the upper-class British government that continues to rule over Northern Ireland.
Still, Kneecap aren’t interested in making some overly political statement with their debut. They simply aim to entertain and engage with festival-ready tunes plenty of young Irish teens will be itching to learn. But the album is sorely missing some lyrical depth; now Kneecap have everyone’s attention, the question is whether they can hold it.
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