Kneecap’s new album arrives forged in legal battles, cancelled tours and scrapped recordings, and Dan Carey’s production gives it a darker, more spacious sound than anything they’ve made before.
FENIAN, the third album from the West Belfast-Derry trio Kneecap – Mo Chara, Mógláí Bap and DJ Próvaí – arrives with the band having been through everything, Glastonbury, a terrorism charge against Mo Chara (later dismissed), the loss of their US visa sponsor following pro-Palestine statements at Coachella 2025, a cancelled North American tour, a scrapped first version of the album they were dissatisfied with, and comes out the other side sounding like none of that broke them.
FENIAN was produced by Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Wet Leg, Kae Tempest, Foals), who was brought in specifically to make something “more mature and musical” and built for arenas. They scrapped the original album entirely (“too similar to Fine Art”) and started again.
The sound that emerged features nocturnal dubstep alongside the more frantic tracks referencing Prodigy-style 90s rave, acid house, trip-hop and classic gangsta hip-hop so, not a million miles away from Fine Art, less garage and drum and bass… but more shade and space in the music.
FENIAN opens with the woozy ‘Éire go Deó’ – a collage that sounds like it is sampling Fermanagh singer Róis direct from her grief-compelled Mo Léan EP, using her ethereal female vocals chanting the title over a pulsing beat, honouring those who kept the Irish language alive.
There’s less out and out ravey bangers this time out but ‘Smugglers & Scholars’ brings heavy industrial hip-hop beats and a dirty bass riff that fits the bill, and again, the band’s bilingual switching is much worthy of praise with the ease it rolls off the tongue – “calling me ‘sceimhleitheoir,’ never heard that said before,” raps Mo Chara on the song.
It must be said also Mo Chara and Mógláí Bap trade verses and mics throughout operating in the slipstream of the best buddy rappers El-P and Killer Mike, with a don’t-give-a-fuck defiance.
As you would expect the last year’s full calendar of controversy informs the record. ‘Carnival’ reenacts Mo Chara’s court case, “a circus of distraction” with dark humour – “Níl mé ciontach (I’m not guilty)” coated in a Massive Attack-esque trip-hop beat. ‘Liars Tale’ is bellowing Orbital-esque acid dance aimed squarely at UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and his stance on Gaza (“Nah, fuck Keir Starmer / Netanyahu’s bitch and genocide armer”) and the band double down on their solidarity for the Palestinian cause by bringing the West Bank rapper Fawzi along for the simply-titled ‘Palestine’.
The title track ‘Fenian’ is the brightest thing here – built on the 2009 electro-pop hit ‘Fot I Hose’ from the Norwegian band Casiokids – reclaiming the term as a badge of honour with a wink and a “tiochfaídh ár lá” with the song filled with references to the Salmon Of Knowledge, Setanta, The Wind That Shakes the Barley and a folk song about Donegal, while embodying a “mix of James Connolly and Clannad.”
The album loses momentum after that. ‘Headcase’, ‘An Ra’, ‘Cold at the Top’ and ‘Occupied 6’ – which gives an oppressive portrait of life under the Troubles, nodding to the Undertones’ ‘Teenage Kicks’ with “it wasn’t all about Teenage Kicks” – and the Eminem-esque rap tone of ‘Gaelphonics’ don’t quite match what came before (‘Occupied 6’ and ‘Gaelphonics’ came from the scrapped album).
The form returns for the last two songs – Radie Peat of Lankum returns once again but this time around her voice is added to a Portishead-esque trip-hop noir on ‘Cocaine Hill’ and ‘Irish Goodbye’ is a personal closer features Kae Tempest and The song features Kae Tempest and was written by Móglaí Bap about his mother, who died by suicide. It arrived earlier this week with a short film starring Liam Cunningham and Deirdre O’Kane.
The album was originally scheduled for April 24th, the 110th anniversary of the Easter Rising – and was pushed back one week. “We hope that this album reflects that it’s not just about us,” says Mógláí Bap. “It’s called Fenian – and not Kneecap – because a Fenian is somebody who stands up, who resists, and who doesn’t give up on what they believe in.”
FENIAN will sound great shouting along in fields and stadiums which is where Kneecap somewhat unbelievably from the humble beginnings, have ended up, but the album proves despite all of the tumult thrown their way, embodying the album’s title – they have emerged stronger, more defiant than ever – digging deeper with moral courage and more resolved than ever to bring the “cultúir tras-phobail”, the cross-community party.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
