THE FATIMA MANSIONS
So what was shocking about the Fatima Mansions? Was it the fact that the Irish music scene had never seen such vitriolic satirical bilious lyrics before. Was it the perfect meshing of Cubase beats and thrash guitar with pointed lyrics. Nah. They were just shocking. As in bad.
If a future generation were to dig up a copy of, say, Viva Dead Ponies, they would certainly claim it as the reason we all perished in a nuclear holocaust sometime in the next twenty years. Or at least should have. For the Fatima Mansions are as unlistenable as Cathal O?Cochl?in?s name is unpronouncable. Unfortunately O?Cochl?in lived in a fabled time when anyone who could operate Cubase and play a guitar was seen as the saviour of indie dance. That these fabled times spat out abortions of nature such as Carter USM and Jesus (oh Jesu!) Jones should come as no surprise. They all seemed a bit thick to operate complex machinery, but then their songs never suggested an in depth understanding of the program.
Take The Loyaliser. Look, it?s a political song about Catholicism. You cannot really tell that from the lyrics, as they are pretty much just shouty bits over a jackhammer beat and some very messy guitars. And this was their biggest hit. If we don?t count their clever double B-Side of Everything I Do (I Do It For You). It was a clever B-Side as it was on someone else?s record. It was less clever careerwise for
a) Being someone else?s song
b) Being for charity
c) Being absolutely no fucking good.
And then he made a record with Sean Hughes called 20 Golden Showers. He was taking the piss. 20 times.