Long-awaited debut album proves well worth the wait

It’s been a strong decade for Irish bands – a noisy, unfiltered path paved by Girl Band emboldened a series of experimental rock groups, each looking to break away from the folk-pop mould that dominated the 2000s in charts and on radio.  Vibrant local scenes have emerged in the likes of Limerick, Galway and Cork – all individual, all looking to champion identity and eclecticism.

And despite releasing their debut album just earlier this month, Dublin trio Bitch Falcon have overseen almost all of the changes and milestones that have led Irish rock to this point. That is because the band technically formed in 2014.

Several acclaimed EPs and hundreds of storied gigs later, Bitch Falcon, made up of frontwoman Lizzie Fitzpatrick, drummer and Galway native Nigel Kenny from Dunmore, and bass player Barry O’Sullivan, have released their first full-length LP.

Staring at Clocks hit shelves and streaming sites on November 6, full of atmosphere, intensity and, crucially, brand new material. Lizzie’s insistence on avoiding an amalgamation-of-EPs type record has resulted in an impressively cohesive debut. After six years of adjustments to sound, style and line-up, the project has officially matured.

“I think the album really captured what we were saying at that point in time,” Lizzie insists. “We wrote it about a year and a half ago and I think it was the first time we were really excited about what we were writing.

“Before, we were happy with it but not really completely there and I think that aspect of it has improved now. We didn’t want to have any of the old stuff in it at all. We wanted to have it be exactly what we were feeling at that moment rather than a collection of songs to get us through a debut album.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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