Those incomparable saviors of rock, Fontaines D.C., are back after a little radio silence with news of a new album ‘ROMANCE’ set for release through new label XL Recordings and Remote Control Records and out on 23 August. The announcement is accompanied by the release of the lead single ‘Starburster’, inspired by a panic attack lead singer Grian Chatten suffered in London’s St Pancras station.
‘Starbuster’ starts with a breathy, claustrophobic, asthmatic synth before a slamming drum thumps in and Chatten’s signatory deadpan lyrical delivery enter, with an arching reverberated guitar and repetition that creates something hypnotic. There is an ominous feel to the track with wheezy intakes of what sounds like puffers adding to the close and intimate nature. A brief break of sunshine filtering through the dark clouds bursts through when a melody enters the fray towards the end.
Written and Directed by Aube Perrie, the accompanying video is a surreal series of shots of Chatten in a fetching lime green shell suit, sometimes battered and bruised, sometimes pristine and fresh, sporty in one shot, exhausted in others, mixing with models in a photoshoot with angel wings in others – a series of puzzling contrasts that serve the bleak nature of the track:
This seems to me to be a darker more weary Fontaines D.C. – battered by the vicissitudes of life and peering out at the world with uncertainty and anxiety: capturing the zeigeist.
‘Starburster’ is out now and can be streamed and downloaded here.
‘ROMANCE’ consists of 11 tracks constellating ideas that have been percolating among Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums) since they released Skinty Fia in 2022.
These ideas crystallised while touring the U.S. and Mexico with Arctic Monkeys as the five band members shared music and found a through-line with artists that deftly build out their own sprawling creative worlds: the attitude and aesthetic sheen of artists like Shygirl and Sega Bodega, the bolshy sonic palettes of hip hop and heavy metal, Mos Def, A$AP Ferg, OutKast and Korn. They had time apart to build more singular visions for what future music could be: O’Connell went to Spain’s Castile-La Mancha and later became a new father, while Chatten spent time in LA, and Deegan in Paris. They laid deeper roots in London. Each member spent time pushing their boundaries – experimental riffs, chord progressions, and far-flung lyrical references without intentions for a record.
After wrapping up the US arena tour in Autumn 2023, they spent a month writing together again, three weeks of pre-production in a North London studio, and a month in a chateau close to Paris, sleeping among studio equipment, completely immersed.
Of the album’s title, Conor Deegan says,
We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance. Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as (Mercury Prize-nominated debut) Dogrel. The second album (the GRAMMY-nominated A Hero’s Death) is about that detachment, and the third (Skinty Fia) is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.
Expounding on the theme, Chatten recalls Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s anime Akira, where the embers of love develop despite a maelstrom of technological degradation and political corruption around its characters.
I’m fascinated by that – falling in love at the end of the world. The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes. This record is about deciding what’s fantasy – the tangible world, or where you go in your mind. What represents reality more? That feels almost spiritual for us.
You can pre-order the album here and through the link below.
Feature Photograph: Theo Cottle
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