Fontaines D.C. are back and have announced ROMANCE, their fourth album, which will be out August 23. This is their first album for XL after three on Partisan, and also marks their first time working with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Depeche Mode).
“We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance,” says bassist Connor Deegan. “Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as Dogrel. The second album (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.”
Expanding on that idea, frontman Grian Chatten mentions classic anima Akira. “I’m fascinated by that – falling in love at the end of the world,” he says. “The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger Armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes,” while O’Connell adds “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.”
Many of the songs were written while on tour last year with Arctic Monkeys, and the album finds them greatly expanding their sonic palette, citing Shygirl, Sega Bodega, Mos Def, Outkast and The Prodigy as influences this time. You can hear some of that on first single “Starburster,” a banger inspired by a panic attack Chatten suffered in London’s St Pancras station. It also makes a nice triple feature with Fontaines’ “Skinty Fia” and Chatten’s collab with Kneecap, “Better Way to Live.”
The video, directed by Aube Perrie (Megan Thee Stallion, Harry Styles, The Hives) takes inspiration from the lyrical paranoia. Watch that below.
Fontaines D.C. will play Glastonbury in June with a headline tour to be announced soon.
ROMANCE:
1. Romance
2. Starburster
3. Here’s The Thing
4. Desire
5. In The Modern World
6. Bug
7. Motorcycle Boy
8. Sundowner
9. Horseness is the Whatness
10. Death Kink
11. Favourite