Rejoice, fans of HRH the Crown Prince of Indie Declan McKenna. His debut album ‘What Do You Think About The Car?’ is here, and you can stream it in full now.
The first full-length from this month’s Dork cover star (order a copy now, Dear Readers – there’s big full page photos to stick on your wall – Ed), it’s a record that distills one of our most important new voices.
All the songs on the album were written over a three-year period. Despite his songwriting development though, it’s still important for Declan to have those older songs on the album. “I prefer the songs I write now compared to ‘Brazil’ that I wrote when I was 15,” he told Dork. “But it’s my biggest song and loads of people found me through it. If I was a fan of a band and they had a massive song that I loved, and it never appeared on an album, I’d be annoyed cos it was difficult to get. It’s important to have them on there, even if my voice is different on the later songs.”
The songs Declan has been writing more recently highlight the different elements of his personality. “The album is about me being playful and positive about not necessarily happy topics,” he says. “That’s what I’m like as a character. I try not to be too distant from serious topics as well. The two go together.”
“I’ve talked about loads of things in songs,” he expands. “When you’re in a world surrounded by mad shit happening, it’s hard to ignore if you’re an artist. A lot of art is inherently political. It’s hard to avoid when you’re looking at the world around you, and you see injustice. It’s easy to let it out into art. It’s even more important now I’ve got a platform to talk about certain subjects and get people engaged in making their own art and doing things themselves. It’s always been a part of what I’ve wanted to do as an artist.”
Exciting, engaging and with something to say, you can check it out below.