#208 Favourite

I first listened to Fontaines D.C. on October 8th, 2018. The hypnotic song “Hurricane Laughter” did it. At the time, we were in between trips. Janne and I had gone to Denmark to watch U2 and I was to make a trip to Dublin to watch Editors. I hadn’t realized how close these events were.

Janne and I were very strong then, stronger than ever. Our love only kept growing until the end. But by then, we started dealing with big difficulties outside our lives. It’s good that we had each other to lean on. We still had a conversation about how each year since 2018 brought a major issue to deal with. And we faced it, together.

Fontaines’ music is rough, although there are some tunes that still show a very emotional side. Janne couldn’t take the song “Too Real” because of the guitar distortion. She always had issues with particular noises (as I have with metal cutlery making screeching sounds). I just learned two days ago that this is called “misophonia”. Even then, she still came with me to see them in Dublin.

If Janne and I were together in the car, I learned to predict which particular tunes she wouldn’t be able to take to change them. If I heard her yell, “ayaah!”, I knew I had failed and had to up my game. She would laugh today at the word misophonia and we would make lots of jokes about it, I’m sure.

Fontaines is releasing a new album. As synchronicity has it, it will be released on my birthday. I pre-ordered it in vinyl (two distinct copies to be sure). About a week ago, they released the song “Favourite” as a single.

This is a big departure from the rest of their music. No harsh sounds, no misophonia for Janne. In fact, it’s very melodic and happy. The song is remembering a long lost love. One of the musicians talked about how they can’t play it without lapsing into emotions of their own. She would have certainly loved Favourite:

Ah, it makes sense when you understand
The misery made me another marked man
And I’m always looking over my shoulder
And each new day, I get another year older
Shoulder bounce through the frame of the door
Chewed into shape like a stone on the shore
But if there was lightning in me
You’d know who it was for.

It was for you, Janne.