Devotion runs through 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 considering devotion through an entirely new lens, introduced on the opening title track of their fourth album Romance . Over brooding, cinematic synths, singer Grian Chatten proclaims, “Maybe romance is a place/For me/And you.
” If there was any takeaway from the 4-single run ahead of songs the band put out before Romance ’s release, it’s that Fontaines aren’t to be pigeonholed. From the grungy Nineties rap-rock flow of “Starburster” (one of the best tracks of the year ) to the jangly dream-pop charmer “Favourite,” the band quickly melted away any genre confines that might have been previously placed around them. The shift was exciting, it was unpredictable, it was even lightly nerve wracking.
But Romance delivers: the record is wildly expansive, and Fontaines’ bullheaded integrity still stands, perhaps with a stronger spine than ever. The subversion extends beyond the music: a significant talking point surrounding the album’s rollout has been the band’s sudden aesthetic and stylistic shift. The colors are brighter, the outfit choices more bizarre.
It may seem drastic, but this is not the business of a band flailing to reinvent their own wheel; it’s a group wh.