The Murder Capital Blindness
Released Feb 21, 2025 Human Season
Established consensus 9 professional reviews Updated Oct 15, 2026
Broadly positive consensus
The Murder Capital's Blindness turns creative immediacy into a source of renewed force, earning a 77.11/100 consensus score across nine professional reviews.
How ChoruScore worksCritics' Top Tracks
The songs critics returned to most
Love Of Country
3 critic mentions
“Built on acoustic guitar, it places the emphasis firmly on the lyrics, as McGovern wonders, “Could you blame me for mistaking your love of country for hate of man?” — Hot Press
Moonshot
2 critic mentions
“There’s no build-up here – the record begins at maximum intensity, a full throttle barrage of chainsaw guitars and hyperspeed drums.” — New Musical Express (NME)
Words Lost Meaning
2 critic mentions
“Words Lost Meaning’ is the catchiest thing they’ve done; sleazy American-tinged rock with James McGovern’s voice a snarl.” — Hot Press
Full critic consensus
The Murder Capital's Blindness turns creative immediacy into a source of renewed force, earning a 77.11/100 consensus score across nine professional reviews. Critics hear a band pushing past inertia with urgency and experimentation, moving between full-throttle guitar assaults and quieter passages that build toward cacophony. The record’s strongest moments suggest a creative resurgence: its intensity feels less like blunt repetition than a renewed willingness to follow an idea wherever it leads.
“Love Of Country” stands out as the centrepiece, praised for its expansive musical and lyrical scope and incisive songwriting. Critics also point to “Moonshot” for its opening salvo and “Words Lost Meaning” for its catchy, shadowed pull; “The Fall” brings anthemic momentum to the album’s quieter-louder contrasts. The best songs on Blindness capture both the band’s muscular side and its more exploratory instincts. The critical reception is positive overall, though not unanimous: one review celebrates the album’s experiments and sense of release, while another’s lower score signals less unreserved enthusiasm. That difference makes the consensus more nuanced than a simple triumph, but the recurring praise for the record’s urgency and standout tracks makes Blindness a compelling listen. The reviews below trace where its risk-taking lands hardest.
Track Ratings
How critics rated each track, relative to this album (0-100). Only tracks that made critics feel something are rated.
Moonshot
Words Lost Meaning
Can't Pretend To Know
A Distant Life
Born Into The Fight
Love Of Country
The Fall
Death Of A Giant
Swallow
That Feeling
Trailing A Wing
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What Critics Are Saying
Deep insights from 9 critics who reviewed this album
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Critic's Take
The Murder Capital rush back with Blindness, a storming, breathless record where immediacy wins out and the best tracks really land. The review highlights “Words Lost Meaning” as the catchiest thing they’ve done, and crowns the six-minute “Love Of Country” as the centrepiece, musical and lyrical in equal measure. There is muscular-yet-vulnerable vocal power across opener “Moonshot” and closer “Trailing A Wing” that frames the album, and shorter punches like “Born Into The Fight” and “The Fall” show their mastery of quiet-to-cacophony dynamics. This reads like the sound of a band re-finding their path, urgent, exhilarating and hard to shake off.
Key Points
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The best song is “Love Of Country” because it is the six-minute centrepiece that foregrounds powerful lyrics about nationalism.
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The album’s core strengths are urgent immediacy, dynamic quiet-to-loud arrangements, and McGovern’s muscular-yet-vulnerable vocals.
Themes
Re
Critic's Take
The Murder Capital begin Blindness at maximum intensity: “Moonshot” is a full-throttle barrage, while “Words Lost Meaning” plunges into delicious gloom and “Can’t Pretend To Know” fires razor-sharp guitars in all directions. The best tracks on Blindness find the band’s experiments working, from the anthemic rush of “The Fall” to the psychedelic glimmer of “Swallow”. “Love Of Country” is a sprawling meditation that shows McGovern’s songwriting at its most incisive; if the aim was to purge themselves of inertia, Blindness can only be judged a success.
Key Points
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‘Love Of Country’ stands out for its sprawling meditation and McGovern’s most incisive songwriting.
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The album’s core strength is its relentless experimentalism, with more often than not its experiments working.