Irish multi-instrumentalist A.S. Fanning recently released his powerful new album Mushroom Cloud and it might make you feel a bit sad at first, but that’s okay.
The album takes us back to those dark, dreaded times we’re all a bit too scared to talk about—the pandemic. It was a tumultuous time for most to say this least and A.S. Fanning doesn’t sugarcoat this, in fact he embraces it. His most vulnerable release to date, Mushroom Cloud combines dark lyricism with soaring orchestration creating something that is beautifully melancholic.
Talking about the album, Fanning elaborates, “I wrote Mushroom Cloud at the beginning of the pandemic, when society had shut down and we had no real knowledge of when, or if, it would start again. As with most people at the time, I became quite isolated and my world grew very small… I haven’t really looked for any silver linings in this myself. I suppose the best I can do is to see it as a document of a low point. A sort of scorched earth that hopefully leads to a new beginning. I found myself laughing at some of the lyrics I had written, which I think is quite a healthy thing, to be able to take a step back from your darker thoughts and see the absurdity in them.”
A comforting constant throughout this album is Fanning’s beast of a baritone quelling a gloomy symphony of instruments, harnessing them into something strangely hopeful.
Mushroom Cloud is in stores now via K&F Records/Proper Octopus Records.
