FOR THOSE I LOVE RELEASE LANDMARK NEW ALBUM “CARVING THE STONE”
OUT NOW ON SEPTEMBER RECORDINGS
TOURNG UK & IRELAND IN SEPTEMBER & OCTOBER
Selected press support for “Carving The Stone”:
“An astonishing album.” – ***** – NME
“It’s rare to find an album this rich in meaning.” – **** – The Guardian
“A work of immense depth, cementing Balfe as a huge talent.” – Electronic Sound
“a more widescreen examination of the pressures exerted on his fellow Dubliners as they fight to survive in what the tech industry has helped become one of Europe’s most expensive cities to live in.” – The FADER
“With the album being centred around the concept of time, ‘Carving The Stone’ feels like it will stand the test of it.” – CLASH
“A breath-taking return.” – The Independent
“As jaw droppingly raw as the album that came before.” – The Guardian Guide
“His lyrics are top-level, the emotions very intense, superbly blended with atmospheric beats.” – The Telegraph
For Those I Love, the brainchild of Dublin producer, visual artist and songwriter David Balfe, releases his critically-acclaimed second album “Carving The Stone” today on September Recordings. A landmark for modern Irish music, the record has seen significant support across the campaign from the likes of DAZED, The Guardian, The FADER, NME, Stereogum, The Independent, Brooklyn Vegan, The Irish Times, Wonderland, Resident Advisor, Mixmag, The Line Of Best Fit, CLASH and more.
LISTEN / WATCH “MIRROR” HERE
LISTEN / WATCH “NO SCHEME” HERE
LISTEN / WATCH “OF THE SORROWS” HERE
The album sees his voice sounding clearer – and angrier – than ever; the distinct voice of a street philosopher, a radical polemicist, and a confessional poet rolled into one hyperliterate ex-raver.
It follows Balfe’s self-titled 2021 debut album which also landed to significant public and critical acclaim internationally. The record was celebrated as BBC 6 Music’s Album Of The Day, went on to win Ireland’s prestigious Choice Music Prize in 2022 and its emotive lead single “I Have A Love” was immortalised in an Overmono remix that is a euphoric highlight of their live sets to this day, one that he performed as a special guest with them at his first Glastonbury this summer.
If he were to commit to a follow-up, Balfe couldn’t face revisiting the same topics: re-traumatising himself was not an option. “There was a time I did feel like I didn’t have anything to say as I have no interest in populating space for the sake of it,” Balfe says. “Then one day it all just started to come out.”
On the ambitious “Carving The Stone”, Balfe retains a focus on life in working-class communities and familial love, but zooms out to the bigger picture. Over soaring strings, sharp guitar lines, the loudest drums he’s ever made, and pretty clubland-synth swells, Balfe much more directly addresses how Irish capitalism ravages working-class communities. Where his debut focused on the death of his best friend, these tracks – and their ghostly instrumentals – meditate on a much wider demise. Whether he’s declaring, imploring, questioning, crying, shouting, or borderline rapping, Balfe is never more than a sentence away from venting his frustrations at the miseries of renting, measly pay checks, double-jobbing and debt: “This was partly my emotional response to what feels like a ‘cultural death,’ a strangling of a city and a generation.”
“Carving the Stone” is a bold reckoning with what it feels like to be alive today in contemporary Dublin, as well as a depiction of Balfe’s own quest to find stability in a city riven with malice. He finds pockets of peace and truth between Marxist musings and diaristic writing on the meaning of art; between vignettes that capture the indignities of working-class life and bright memories of teenage abandon. For Balfe, great art – and meaning – can only be found in the grey areas of life, somewhere between hopefulness and despair.
“Carving The Stone” is out now on CD, standard black LP, an Irish exclusive coloured LP, an indie store only exclusive coloured LP and an already highly limited, with only a few copies left on sale, Dinked exclusive edition LP.
Buy the new album from the official store:
http://forthoseilove.ffm.to/
Buy the Irish exclusive: https://
Buy the Dinked edition: https://
In support of the album, For Those I Love will tour Ireland for the first time and perform their biggest UK tour yet with both London and Dublin already close to selling out.
Tickets are on sale now.
Sign up to the For Those I Love mailing list for updates and reminders:
https://drop.cobrand.com/d/
FOR THOSE I LOVE LIVE:
Tuesday 23rd September – The Fleece, Bristol
Thursday 25th September – Islington Assembly Hall, London
Sunday 28th September – Gorilla, Manchester
Monday 29th September – Room 2, Glasgow
Wednesday 1st October – Limelight 2, Belfast
Thursday 2nd October – Cyprus Ave, Cork
Friday 3rd October – Mike The Pies, Listowel
Sunday 5th October – Black Box, Galway
Monday 6th October – 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin
For Those I Love
Carving The Stone
Out now on September Recordings
Carving The Stone
No Quiet
No Scheme
The Ox / The Afters
Civic
Mirror
This Is Not The Place I Belong
Of The Sorrows
I Came Back To See The Stone Had Moved