Biceps

Matthew Xavier Corrigan is a man for an opening line, but even by his standards “there’s a buck-tooth young buck tryna find my Eircode” is a killer; haiku-like in how it takes the awful tone of some lad who’s taken a grudge against you in the smoking area of the Bróg and compresses it into a single strike. Biceps is a song that relishes in using that champion boxer sort of precision; jabbing at the delicate ego and machismo of a loud, brash deflector, a technical knockout in two and a half minutes.

And while it’s short and nimble, the track is beautifully dynamic; the back half lets the track’s instrumental take the spotlight, with beautiful rolling guitar lines, chopped and vocoded vocal clips and an infectious bass line holding court until the show’s over.

In February 2020, two years and three EPs into his run with Hausu, Matthew Xavier Corrigan played a sold-out hometown gig in support of his latest project Fever Dreaming; hitting a stride that would have seen hitting festival stages the world over with Alex Gough in the summer. On the other side of a lost year, he finds himself celebrating the liberty of making something new every day for its own sake, sonic self-discovery and the joy of overturning the boundaries of genre from the comfort of one’s own home.

Biceps is the second single of this 2021 run, landing one month after I Don’t Need Help, a more manic experimental track that picked up coverage from national radio and some of Ireland’s most influential blogs and playlists, including District Magazine, The Last Mixed Tape, GoldenPlec, The Thin Air and more.

Biceps continues Corrigan’s long-running collaboration with visual artist Neil O’Sullivan-Greene who gives singles in the series an animated 3D artwork; turning themselves inside-out, yet contained within four walls. It also continues a long-running tradition of Matthew Xavier Corrigan releasing new music on his birthday, making this a spiritual successor to his 2019 hit Deflector.