The Fat Angel Sings

Fontaines D.C. released their highly-anticipated fourth album, “Romance”. “Romance” is the band’s first album with producer James Ford and is without doubt their most assured, inventive and sonically adventurous record yet. It’s set to build on the success of the Dublin-made, now London-based band’s acclaimed 2022 album “Skinty Fia”, which reached number 1 in the UK and Irish album charts…

The Dublin quintet’s fourth LP is an essay of mosh-pit guitars careening into baggy desires and stringed visions of mercy. “Romance” opens with a feeling of limitless possibility framed against a backdrop of impending doom. The ominous title track feels like a death march: Its piano melody teeters between innocence and occult, accompanied by brooding fuzz guitar and percussion that sounds like it was recorded in a damp cave.

The band switched producers from Dan Carey (Black Midi and Squid) to James Ford (Arctic Monkeys and Gorillaz), and it feels like they have shifted up a gear both musically and in ambition terms. The raw, savage songs from their first two records, ‘Dogrel’ and ‘A Hero’s Death,’ have morphed into bigger, fuller songs on ‘Romance’.

Strings, synths, and beautiful backing vocals are present, but there is also a nod to the nu-metal bands they were listening to as adolescents, most noticeably in their wardrobe makeover and in the delivery of some of the songs on the record, including the first single, ‘Starburster’.

There is a sprinkling of shoegaze on tracks like ‘Desire’ and ’Sundowner’, a touch of grunge on ‘Death Kink’, a slice of soft rock on ‘Motorcycle Boy’ and a bone fide string-laden ballad in ‘Horseness Is the Whatness’ (a quote from ‘Ulysses’ by James Joyce fact fans).

You don’t expect an album called “Romance” to open with a stalking titled track brimming with gothic vibrations and the line, “Into the darkness again.” Yet, that’s what Fontaines D.C. does so brilliantly throughout their fourth full-length in five years: subverting your every expectation, from theme to sound to the very definition of “romance.”

The Irish band uses the collection to paint a beautiful dystopia where the heart and the head battle against destruction. Epic strings and lush production from James Ford place frontman Grian Chatten’s lyrics within the cinematic heritage of everything from Akira to Wings of Desire, immediate influences on the band’s feelings-first approach to songwriting.

Tracks like ‘In The Modern World’ are as good as anything they have released and about as far from their early sound as they have been. This isn’t a criticism; it is fantastic hearing a group I love evolve and develop; it is like discovering another brilliant band – although singer Brian Chatten’s voice is so distinctive that I’m always reminded of who I’m listening to.

I reckon this is the most accessible album they have ever realised; by that, I mean it isn’t as thrashy, dark or angular as their previous releases. By accident or design, this is probably the most radio-friendly record of their career. It should see an army of new fans discover them, which will propel them into the stadium-filling bracket – they did say they would be big.

Fontaines D.C. don’t claim the label post-punk, and “Romance” defies you to challenge them. They are rock artists in the truest sense, captivating with the colours and emotions of their compositions as much as the sounds themselves. Pulling this off with a record that explores such darkness without leaving you feeling desolate is, at its core, profoundly romantic.