Romance (Fontaines D.C. album)
| Romance | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 23 August 2024 | |||
| Length | 36:57 | |||
| Label | XL | |||
| Producer | James Ford | |||
| Fontaines D.C. chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Romance | ||||
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Romance is the fourth studio album by Irish rock band Fontaines D.C. Announced on 17 April 2024 along with the lead single, "Starburster", it was released on 23 August 2024.[1] It also features the singles "Favourite", "Here's the Thing", and "In the Modern World". It will be their first release on XL Recordings, after the band left Partisan Records, and was produced by James Ford.The album received acclaim from critics.
Background
[edit]Grian Chatten told Mojo that they decided to step away from their Irish-centric themes for the album as it would have been too difficult to "sound like Ireland" while crafting a futuristic and dystopian vision called Romance. According to Chatten, the songwriting process was, as usual for the band, a "constant process" that happened between touring. The "spiritual form" of the album first emerged when he wrote the track "In the Modern World". He compared the process to soundtracking a city for which he finally understood the "colour and the year and the atmosphere and the temperature" of. The album was influenced by several locations as well as "certain atmospheres at certain times", including Tokyo. Chatten stated, "We write a lot more based on visual references than musical references. It's easier to be original." The album was also inspired by Japanese manga and Italian cinema.[2] The album is produced by James Ford. Drummer Tom Coll said that Romance was, in some ways, like the band's first-ever studio record in that they deliberately moved away from their long-held "if we can't play it live, let's not do it" mentality.[3]
"Horseness Is the Whatness", was written by guitarist Carlos O'Connell, and the title was taken from Ulysses.[3] The lyrics to "Here's the Thing" were built off the back of an argument between Chatten and O'Connell, and "In the Modern World" was inspired by Lana Del Rey's "strain of disillusionment".[4] "Favourite" originally had twelve verses written by Chatten, however, it was shortened to just four by the rest of the band. And, to Conor Curley, his lead vocals on "Sundowner" were by accident.[4]
Influences
[edit]Chatten, being reluctant to discuss any poetic influence on his lyrics, did reveal himself reading Dylan Thomas, and Land Sickness by Nikolaj Schultz.[4] The more legible influences on the record are found in the form of cinema, with movies such as Sunset Boulevard, and The Great Beauty. Wings of Desire is another influence on Chatten.[3]
Supporting the Arctic Monkeys on their North American tour, and watching Blur play Wembley acted as inspirations on Chatten, who stated: "I didn't want to write, like, a "Champagne Supernova", but I did want to do something that felt like it was deep within and far without,"[1]
"In the Modern World" is inspired by Akira's "depiction of apocalyptic emotion", with Chatten mentioning "..I can hear the buildings collapsing." Conor Deegan mentioned beat poets in reference to the song's feel, saying: "That song, I get visions of On the Road, Jack Kerouac, driving through the desert in America, the beat-up 1950s car, right? And they stop into the motel for some warm cans of beer. The AC isn't working. The fan is spinning half-speed. All that shit."[5]
Korn inspired nu-metal sweeps into lead single "Starburster", with Chatten going on to say that they "scared the shit out of me as a kid". Guitarist Carlos O'Connell shared the sentiment regarding Korn, with "this thing I loved when I was 14 and stopped listening to for years and now I love again". Korn contemporaries Deftones and Alice in Chains too, served as inspiration for O'Connell.[1]
'Favourite', with its melancholic swirl of jangle has been compared to Morrissey's "Why Don't You Find Out for Yourself".[1]
The horror-inspired music video for single "Here's the Thing"[6] drew comparisons to the films The Lost Boys (1987) and Phenomena (1985).[7] It was directed by Luna Carmoon, who confirmed the influence of Phenomena, and commented:[8]
I had, at the time, recently rewatched one of my favourite films: Dario Argento's Phenomena, which is the biggest influence on the music video. I just thought it'd be fantastic to see a world like this in the backdrop of the Irish dancing arena. You have a lot of films like Drop Dead Gorgeous about American Beauty pageants, but you don't really have that in Britain or Ireland, that kind of hyper-femininity meets violence. The Lost Boys was another big influence. I wanted it to be Lost Boys but Girls.
Conor Curley found himself listening to much of Massive Attack and Portishead, as well as "Freedom Fighter" by Bowery Electric – feeling inspired by music that's already considered "classic". Tom Coll got "set off on a hip-hop vibe" – partially due to playing drums on the Kneecap album Fine Art – and immersed himself in grunge, going on to say he "probably left the house [Recording Studio] only three times in three weeks".[5]
Critical reception
[edit]| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 8.9/10[9] |
| Metacritic | 89/100[10] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [11] |
| The Guardian | [12] |
| The Irish Times |  [13] |
| Mojo | [14] |
| NME | [15] |
| Pitchfork | 7.7/10[16] |
| Record Collector | [17] |
| Rolling Stone UK | [18] |
| Uncut | 8/10[19] |
Keith Cameron of Mojo rated it 4 out of 5 stars, stating, "Inspired by Japanese manga and Italian cinema, the Irish quintet's fourth searches for truth in a world gone wrong." Cameron continued: "The more conventionally arranged Bug still has him [Grian] threading words like a tessellated moving pavement [...]. With the music's adjacency to "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", it occurs that just like The Smiths, this is a rock band with both a fresh vocabulary and behavioural code."[14]
Shaun Curran, while writing for Record Collector, gave the album 4 stars out of 5, concluding, "It's startling to think how far Fontaines D.C. have travelled creatively in five years, through an agitated, restlessness, a vivid imagination and courage to try the new." Curran also named "Favourite" as the best song on the album, describing it as a "sound-of-the-summer" track where shoegaze meets The Cure.[17]
The Irish Times's Tony Clayton gave the album a 4.5 out of 5 stars, concluding the band's evolution through the album as, "It's all quite a remove from "Boys in the Better Land", "Liberty Belle", "Too Real" and "Big", but Fontaines DC rightly ask what the point is if you have to ask permission to evolve." The last track "Favourite" also was named as the best song with "irresistible jangly guitars and, perhaps, is a sign of what to expect on album number five".[13]
Alexis Petridis, The Guardian's head rock and pop critic, named the album as "album of the week" - giving the album 5 out of 5 stars - and surmised the impact as: Romance is more straightforwardly approachable than any Fontaines DC album to date – you can easily imagine "Desire" provoking an immense crowd into singing along. But it doesn't sacrifice any of the band's potency in the process: thrillingly, it still carries the same grimy, careworn, aggressive qualities as their previous work."[12]
Uncut's Daniel Dylan rated it an 8/10, describing the album and the band's sonic evolution as, "From the electronic slow-build moody ruminations of Romance via the panic-attack-inspired "Starburster" or the swooping harmonies of "In the Modern World", it feels as though the band have carved out a new sonic space for them to operate in while still retaining their own identity."[19]
NME gave the album five stars, calling it "an album that charts the devastating duality of its title." They called Romance the band's "most considered and intricately crafted release yet".[15]
Track listing
[edit]All tracks are written by Grian Chatten, Conor Curley, Carlos O'Connell, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll, unless noted otherwise.
| No. | Title | Writer(s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Romance" | 2:33 | |
| 2. | "Starburster" | 3:41 | |
| 3. | "Here's the Thing" | 2:43 | |
| 4. | "Desire" | 3:39 | |
| 5. | "In the Modern World" | 4:26 | |
| 6. | "Bug" | 3:02 | |
| 7. | "Motorcycle Boy" | 3:42 | |
| 8. | "Sundowner" | Conor Curley | 3:25 |
| 9. | "Horseness Is the Whatness" | Carlos O'Connell | 3:07 |
| 10. | "Death Kink" | 2:23 | |
| 11. | "Favourite" | 4:16 | |
| Total length: | 36:57 | ||
Personnel
[edit]Fontaines D.C:
- Grian Chatten – words, lead vocals (1–7, 9–11), piano, guitar (5, 7, 10, 11)
- Connor Curley – guitar, bass (1, 2), lead vocals and words (8), backing vocals (1, 4, 6)
- Carlos O'Connell – guitar, Mellotron (1, 2, 5, 8, 9), backing vocals (4, 7, 11), Yamaha Reface (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10), words (9)
- Connor Deegan III – bass, backing vocals (1–8, 10–11), co-lead vocals (5)
- Tom Coll – drums, percussion, guitar (9)
Additional credits:
- James Ford – production, mixing, fuzz guitar (1)
- Freddy Woodsworth – keyboard arrangement (2)
- Anthony Cazade – engineering
- Samuel Borst – engineering assistance
- Carlos O'Connell – art direction
- Texas Maragh – art direction
- Lulu Lin – cover images[20]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d Aroesti, Rachel (18 April 2024). "Fontaines DC: 'We can generate ideas that sound like they've been carved in stone for a thousand years'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
- ^ "Fontaines D.C. Interviewed: "Embracing the risk – that's fuckin' exhilarating."". Mojo. 23 July 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
- ^ a b c "Fontaines D.C.: Love Without Limits". Crack Magazine. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
- ^ a b c "Fontaines D.C." 930 Club. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
- ^ a b "Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC: 'We were speeding off the edge of a cliff'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
- ^ Fontaines DC (6 August 2024). Fontaines D.C. - Here's The Thing (Official Video). Retrieved 8 August 2024 – via YouTube.
- ^ "Fontaines D.C. Share New Song "Here's The Thing": Listen". Stereogum. 6 August 2024. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
- ^ Dazed (6 August 2024). "Fontaines D.C.'s new video is a twisted take on teen girlhood". Dazed. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
- ^ "Romance by Fontaines D.C. reviews". AnyDecentMusic. Retrieved 27 August 2024.
- ^ "Romance by Fontaines D.C. Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
- ^ Martin, Liam (23 August 2024). "Romance – Fontaines D.C." AllMusic. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
- ^ a b Petridis, Alexis (15 August 2024). "Fontaines DC: Romance review – arenas await, but on the band's own strange terms". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
- ^ a b "Fontaines DC: Romance – Incredibly compelling indie rock that takes the Dublin band to the next level". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
- ^ a b Mojo Magazine - Romance : Fontaines D.C. 11 July 2024.
- ^ a b "Fontaines D.C. – 'Romance' review: knockout, spiritual songs for the end of time". NME. 19 August 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
- ^ Farrell, Margaret (22 August 2024). "Fontaines D.C.: Romance Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ a b Curran, Shaun (September 2024). "Romance". Record Collector. p. 132.
- ^ Reilly, Nick (22 August 2024). "Fontaines D.C. 'Romance' review: generational greats come of age". Rolling Stone UK. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
- ^ a b Dylan, Daniel (September 2024). "Romance". Uncut. p. 32.
- ^ Whettingsteel, Josh (16 August 2024). "So Young Magazine – Interview – Meet Lulu Lin". So Young Magazine. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
