Devotion runs by means of the veins of Fontaines D.C.’s music. The Dublin group first crashed onto the post-punk scene with their 2019 debut Dogrel, a nuanced, gripping homage to their homeland; 2022’s guttural Skinty Fia unpacked the guilt they felt after relocating to London. Now, they’re contemplating devotion by means of a wholly new lens, launched on the opening title observe of their fourth album Romance. Over brooding, cinematic synths, singer Grian Chatten proclaims, “Possibly romance is a spot/For me/And also you.”
If there was any takeaway from the 4-single run forward of songs the band put out earlier than Romance’s launch, it’s that Fontaines aren’t to be pigeonholed. From the grungy Nineties rap-rock move of “Starburster” (probably the greatest tracks of the 12 months) to the jangly dream-pop charmer “Favorite,” the band shortly melted away any style confines that may have been beforehand positioned round them. The shift was thrilling, it was unpredictable, it was even flippantly nerve wracking. However Romance delivers: the report is wildly expansive, and Fontaines’ bullheaded integrity nonetheless stands, maybe with a stronger backbone than ever.
The subversion extends past the music: a big speaking level surrounding the album’s rollout has been the band’s sudden aesthetic and stylistic shift. The colours are brighter, the outfit selections more odd. It might appear drastic, however this isn’t the enterprise of a band flailing to reinvent their very own wheel; it’s a bunch who has stepped into a brand new echelon of self-assuredness. And it’s actually not too random, in spite of everything; there have been foreshadowed hints that this model of Fontaines has at all times lived of their DNA. In a Reddit AMA the band held 5 years in the past in help of Dogrel, frontman Chatten said his love of an Arthur Rimbaud poem additionally titled ‘Romance,’ saying it “does an identical factor to me as a few of [Bob] Dylan’s early lyrics.”
It takes a real romantic to be a world-builder, and Fontaines D.C. have mastered the artwork. Every music on Romance acts as its personal fantastical cinematic universe, fleshed out with fictional characters, in-depth monologues, and pristinely-curated sonic components to match. That’s partially indebted to the band’s resolution to work with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Blur) on this report. The textures of the devices on Romance sound crisper and extra strikingly pinpointable, showcasing drummer Tom Coll, bassist Conor (Deego) Deegan III, and guitarists Carlos O’Connell and Conor Curley at their most harmoniously in-sync.
On tracks like “Need” and the plunging, Slowdive-like “Sundowner” – which options lead vocals from Curley – heartrending guitar riffs construct atop a gentle mattress of lush strings and ooze into full shoegaze territory. “Dying Kink” is a masterclass in edging and restraint, with Chatten gasping for air as a sky-high wave of fuzzy guitars suspends simply lengthy sufficient for him to utter, “I made a promise and I killed it/Shit, shit, shit.”
The band’s vocal performances function a storytelling tactic on their very own. Chatten outdoes himself right here, whether or not he’s using his gravelly growl, floating into falsetto, or stepping again from the mic to let his phrases echo and fall within the damaging area. A significant power of Romance are the background vocals sung by Deego and O’Connell – they double as parentheticals, or secondary narrations, telling tiny tales all their very own. Take the push-and-pull dialog that happens on the cascading, Lana Del Rey-esque “In The Trendy World,” an orchestral examination of numbness and escapism: “I don’t really feel something, and I don’t really feel unhealthy.”
At moments on the report, notably the string-laden ones, it seems like Fontaines D.C. might be teetering on the precipice of disillusionment. They’re well-aware of the crumbling dystopian world round them, with themes of apocalyptic existentialism and an actual Hail Mary “love on the finish of the world” sensibility operating by means of the album. And but, they keep that romance – as idealistic and eccentric because the idea could be – is the crux, a delusion value surrendering to.
The album’s heartbeat lies in “Horseness Is The Whatness,” which takes its identify from James Joyce’s Ulysses. Singing lyrics written by O’Connell, Chatten dizzily asks for somebody to search out out what the phrase is that makes the world go ‘spherical. “‘Trigger I believed it was love,” he implores, with an nearly childlike defiance, and you may inform he needs to consider it. “However some say that it must be selection.”
The strain between love and selection brings to thoughts a music on the band’s 2020 album A Hero’s Dying. The title is the message, and it’s repeated on a loop all through the observe: “Love Is The Important Factor.” Romance finds Fontaines D.C. operating by means of a thick smog of tension and doom, sending up a slew of questions on what the purpose of all of it even is. It looks like they’ve identified the reply all alongside.
