Kneecap have announced their debut album ‘Fine Art’ and dropped the visuals for their new single, ‘Sick In The Head’.
The Northern Irish rap trio’s debut album will drop on June 14 via Heavenly Recordings and was produced by Toddla T.
Speaking about the album, Kneecap said: “When working on the album we had periods of great productivity but also periods with a total lack of anything creatively. Towards the end of recording we hit a proper wall and this is the result. Our mental health was being tested and we said ‘Fuck it, we’re doomed to mental torture, we want to have some money to get through it. We’ve had enough of it while being broke round Belfast.’”
They had entered the studio with Toddla T in summer 2023 but scrapped the music they had prepared to record. Instead, they built a community pub in West Belfast called The Rutz, which also serves as a fictional setting within the album.
“T’s idea was to tell the story of Kneecap,” said the collective’s Mo Chara. “So the record was conceived as the listener stepping into Kneecap’s world. That’s where the idea came to set the whole thing in a pub. You walk into a pub at the start, there’s someone offering you a drink, there’s a singsong… really, it’s us taking you by the hand and leading you into our world.”
To coincide with the announcement, Kneecap have debuted the video for their single ‘Sick In The Head’.
”We’re in the centre of a sweaty mosh pit mid-gig in a dark warehouse room. This pit represents emotional state, from fucked up and chaotic to moments of clarity and calmness,” the trio explained. “The warehouse offers escape – from the mundane… for the marginalised.”
Check it out below:
The album also features Kneecap’s collaboration with Grian Chatten of Fontaines D.C. ‘Better Way To Live’, which was released in November.
The tracklist for ‘Fine Art’ is:
1. ‘3CAG (ft. Radie Peat)’
2. ‘Fine Art’
3. ‘I bhFiacha Linne’
4. ‘I’m Flush’
5. ‘Better Way To Live (ft. Grian Chatten)’
6. ‘Sick In The Head’
7. ‘Love Making’
8. ‘Drug Dealin Pagans’
9. ‘Harrow Road (ft. Jelani Blackman)’
10. ‘Parful’
11. ‘Rhino Ket’
12. ‘Way Too Much’
The trio have also announced a series of UK dates for November 2024 – you can see the full list below and buy your tickets here.
NOVEMBER
14 – Sheffield, Foundry
15 – Manchester, New Century Hall
16 – Glasgow, Barrowlands
19 – Nottingham, Rock City
20 – Bristol, SWX
22 – London, O2 Forum Kentish Town
They will also be performing at Reading & Leeds this summer.
The news of the band’s debut album follows the group accusing the UK government of attempting to “silence” them after a last-minute funding block.
The accusation against the UK government comes after they blocked the group from receiving British Phonographic Industry (BPI) funding award – issued under the Music Export Growth Scheme (MEGS) to support the expansion of bands in global markets.
According to the group, the decision may have been due to their provocative 2019 tour poster, which they allege “pissed off the Tories”.