Romance amid approaching armageddon. Life in a snow globe, a pastoral scene made ever-precarious, teetering on chaos created by the flick of the wrist. Love as an antique, that generations after us will only understand from history books.
Fontaines D.C.’s fourth album ROMANCE interrogates amorphous concepts of love and relationships, alienation and identity, fantasy and reality – all building to a central statement that Chatten sings of hauntingly, invitingly, on the opening track: “Maybe romance is a place”.
11 tracks constellate ideas that have been percolating among Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums) since 2022’s No.1 record Skinty Fia and US tour with Arctic Monkeys.
The record builds upon sonic sensibilities the band started to experiment with on Skinty Fia, now reaching into grungier textures, hip-hop breaks and beats, shoegazey tones and contemporary electronic sounds. It is as indebted to their times listening to Shygirl and Sega Bodega as it is to old Hollywood soundtracks, Outkast, The Prodigy and A$AP Ferg. The band introduces more assured production skills.
ROMANCE’s bones were set in time spent apart, experimenting as individuals across Mexico, the Spanish countryside, and LA, and an intense production period together with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Blur) in a French chateau.
The album represents a provocative sonic and aesthetic era for the Dublin-made, now London-based band. A summer of international live shows and festivals will introduce fans to their rapidly unspooling universe and ask them too: will you all-out surrender to the fantasy?