Some songs don’t play like an old vinyl on a Sunday afternoon. Sometimes, it sounds closer to a document stained with blood, sweat, and mud, like Garrett Anthony Rice’s The Coastal Walls (The Shame Of Everyone).
Now based in Greystones, County Wicklow, Garrett Anthony Rice carries a sound inspired by The Smiths, Neil Young, and David Bowie. With an intention to make a significant impact on the global music scene, he’s back with The Coastal Walls (The Shame Of Everyone) that mirrors the brutal reality of the American slave trade from 1619 to the present day.
The track carries these dusty blues textures in the beginning, almost deceiving you into thinking this would be warm and nostalgic. But lean closer and you’ll hear a worn-out guitar beneath Rice’s distant vocals, both blurring the line between music and the grotesque echo of history.
The lyrics are vivid, blunt even, it’s as if saying “you’re not here to look at everything from a safe distance, you’re here to experience it.” Lines like “Beautiful Creole girl beaten, whupped and then they cracked her God given delph” don’t exist for shock alone. They drag real violence and pain right into the center of the track with no filter and no comfort. Whether you want it or not, bodies washing up along coastal walls, the white fluff that weighs so little, and the hands that were never kept alive, start to sink in in ways you can’t fully name or contain. One thing about this track is that it was never meant for entertainment or casual listening. It confronts, demands, and disturbs the enablers and exploiters like a protest that refuses to stay quiet.
All in all, The Coastal Walls (The Shame Of Everyone) reinforces Rice’s artistic standing,. Because when an artist refuses polish and comfort, what’s left is intent — that’s when you know he’s the real deal.
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