Album Review: Jinx Lennon, The Hate Agents Leer At The Last Isle Of Hope

Jinx Lennon’s tremendously titled new album is mightily comparable to Dylan Thomas’ Under Milk Wood with its epic ambition, magnificent wordplay and the erudite eye of its omniscient narrator.

The singer’s capacity for channelling a multitude of characters into bite-sized chunks is marvellous, and a patchwork of citizenry from his hometown of Dundalk is wonderfully depicted here. Flann O’Brien, John Cooper Clarke and Mark E. Smith usually enter the conversation when discussing Jinx Lennon, and they’re definitive touchstones on this record. So too are fellow Dundalk crew The Mary Wallopers.

At a monumental 26 tracks, it’s an album not to be gobbled down, but to meander through at your ease. The title is inspired by the machinations of the emerging extremist political movements in Ireland, while the cover features Jinx outside The Sisters of Mercy Convent in Dundalk during a far-right rally.

In the pic, he sports a customary dunce hat, on which is emblazoned ‘Border Schizo Folk Sound Save Your Skull’ – a solid depiction of the sonics contained within.

Insufferable racists, Catholic dogma, faux-republicanism, and over-zealous social media police are all on the Lennon chopping block, while an appreciation of one’s surrounds and an acerbic wit are his prescribed medicine. Splendid stuff.

9/10

Out now