David Balfe returns with ‘Carving the Stone’, the second album to be released under his For Those I Love moniker. While the debut self-titled record offered meditations on grief and loss following the death of his best friend, this record finds David focusing on life in working-class communities, familial life and how Irish capitalism is ravaging both….

The title track opens the record in almost jaunty and upbeat fashion, but these beats surround lyrics about losing belief, stress about paying the rent and wanting what we can’t afford. This is followed by ‘No Quiet’, a most bass-heavy song with equally dark subject matter, as David talks about a daddy who claims ‘I wanna lay with the sea’; ‘I wanna be with the weeds and the leaves’. Recent single ‘No Scheme’ looks at the modern world, social media (‘WhatsApp groups full of half-truths’) and how people just give up on their dreams as they settle into the mundane: ‘This city that lost its shape, held together by surveillance and vape’.

‘The Ox/The Afters’ is a character profile of an alcoholic gallavanter who loved Thin Lizzy and played a huge part in David’s life: ‘The big man from down the block’ who ‘chose an 8-pint goodbye’. With elements of The Twilight Sad or Arab Strap amongst the more danceable moments, this is a record that rewards on repeated listens. ‘Civic’ opens with talk of being in love with scripture and finds comfort in creativity, while ‘Mirror’ touches on knife crime – ‘I know your fear and fury’; ‘Some pain never fades, it just appears in new ways’ – before finishing with a healthy repetition of the word ‘cunt’.

As suggested by the title, ‘This Is Not the Place I Belong’ is a heartbreaking personal piece about growing up and losing your sense of home: ‘Those days are gone, the city’s changed’, ‘If I quit, there’s no salvation’. Talk of being in bed with ‘techno feudalism’s is mentioned alongside the rhythmic ‘I do my work, I stay involved, I pay my rent, pray for a God to heal my hurt, to find resolve’. The album’s closing tracks ‘Of the Sorrows’ and ‘I Came Back to See the Stone Had Moved’ are equally anthemic – and angry – with the former summing up the state of David’s nation: ‘Bankrupt yourself just to stay where you belong’.

Amidst strings, synths and sharp guitar riffs, David Balfe once again delivers pure and relatable poetry and observations that swell the emotions…