New Music Monday: F!onn ‘The Despondent Cycle’ (2017)

Happy 2021, readers!  This year hasn’t started off any better for me personally but we’re only a couple weeks in…

In my attempts to stay more connected to the world and not constantly annoyed by the news, I’ve joined some interesting channels on Discord. The one I’ve started making friends on is a Morrissey channel, though it does seem they like all sorts of music on there. And some like my new friend Fionn even makes his own music under the name F!onn. He’s also started a Blondie Discord channel, which I’ve joined though it’s a small and growing group.

F!onn is from Dublin, Ireland and is a huge Madonna fan, and pop music lover in general and a young student of music and synthesizers who writes, produces and sings his own stuff. I started out listening to his most recent release Evol (2019) (no relation to BRMC’s track) and he said it wasn’t his best work and he was going to quit music when that was released. Fortunately, he hasn’t because I even found those songs pretty good.

He recommended an album of his called The Despondent Cycle (2017), which he says is like Depeche Mode though a bit more lo-fi to me. I’m embedding it below for listening purposes. The tracks “Being Yourself (Is Overrated)” use synths to an almost video game like effect with a disco groove. “Socket” is a danceable synth track, with a memorable bridge and might not be out of place in an 8 bit video game.

Songs like “Metronome” and “Limbo” seem to explore relationships in a both positive and negative light, they are tricky things and explored in a way that makes them feel slightly dependent. F!onn’s music is expressive, emotional and very well constructed synth pop. I think he takes some lyrical cues from Morrissey though musically it’s closer to bands like Depeche Mode and Pet Shop Boys. As a young talent, F!onn shows a lot of potential for both song writing and music production, I hope everyone enjoys this album as much as I did!