A.S. Fanning - Mushroom Cloud (2023) [Hi-Res]

"I don't think there's any good reason to make an album like this. Not in any logical way." This is the answer you get when asking the Irish Songwriter A.S. Fanning how he arrived at making an album that is so bleak and apocalyptical it leaves you gasping for air.

The word melancholy is far too weak to describe this. Desperation is not the right fit either. A.S. Fanning seems to be the level-headed chronicler of a perishing world. Realistic/pessimistic. His album “Mushroom Cloud” is far more than that though. In the organic and analogue production of this album, the expansive rock band builds stunning melodic arcs around Fanning’s warm baritone voice. In connection with his inauspicious topics this leads to a bizarre enthrallment. Listening all the way through can feel like staring into a deep dark well for a little too long.

Lyrically, Mushroom Cloud can be described as an update to Leonard Cohen’s “The Future”. Paranoia, Isolation during COVID lockdowns, climate change, war, autocrats, populists, the internet as a battlefield and the precise registration of each and every moment, while the eyes
linger on an advertisement in the timeline.