On Fontaines DC's 2024 panic-inspired single “Starburster,” frontman Grian Chatten desperately seeks unfiltered certainty. “I wanna take the truth without a lens on it/My god-given insanity depends on it,” he sings, buried amid crunchy boom-bap beats and hissing Mellotron. The song's cryptic video—and its ominous parade of face masks, albuterol hits, and reconstructive surgeries—only underscores the sense that the Irish band, once famous for its studied composure, may be going off the rails.
Where Fontaines DC album 2022 Skinny Fia to bid a sad farewell to the band's Dublin origins, on Romance embrace their transformation into planet-hunting rock stars. Evolving from the pints, poetry and working-class roots of their roots, they've swapped longtime collaborator Dan Carey (Squid, Black Midi) for producer James Ford, known for his work with large-scale arena bands such as the Arctic Monkeys , Gorillaz. and Depeche Mode. have replaced his raw post-punk Dogrel and The death of a hero with a Frankenstein synthesis of Britpop, gothic Americana and 90s alt rock. (They've revamped their outfits, too, with new looks that suggest Harmony Korine is styling the Spice Girls.) Are they having an identity crisis or playing with their newfound fame? It's exciting, it's a bit of both. Romance keeps the darkness an integral part of Fontaines DC's music while exhibiting an intense unpredictability.
Romance it opens with a sense of limitless possibility framed against a backdrop of impending doom. The ominous title track feels like a death march: its piano melody hovers between innocence and the occult, accompanied by fuzzy guitar and percussion that sounds like it was recorded in a damp cave. “Maybe romance is a place,” Chatten sings seductively: “For me/And you.” What follows is equally sprawling and surreal, combining the haunting sweetness of the Cure with the nightmarish edge of the Pixies. Rich string arrangements bring to mind the ghosts of classic cinema, then give way to a dark western influence.
Chatten sounds more alive than ever, exuding the curiosity of a traveler exploring a new city. From his ragged breathing and soulful scream on “Starburster” to the urgent falsetto and seductive sighs of “Here's the Thing” to a wailing voice on “Desire,” his new range is remarkable, as is the band. On “In the Modern World,” they channel the dreamy tones of Lana Del Rey's “Sad Girl” and Smashing Pumpkins' “Tonight, Tonight.” On “Death Kink,” Chatten's voice shifts between narcotic and menacing as he unfurls the lyrics like a lap of exquisite corpse: “I'm living ungrateful/You shattered/Stunning stars from the booze.”
