Review: Fontaines D.C. – Romance

Fontaines D.C.
Romance
XL Recordings
Street: 08.23
Fontaines D.C. = The Pogues + a little bit of The Flaming Lips (just a little bit I swear)

This group needs no introductions. After their 2022 album Skinty Fia and opening for Arctic Monkeys on their 2023 North American tour for The Car, it’s safe to say that Fontaines D.C. has hit the sweet spot of notoriety where most post-punk fans know their tracks by heart, but their singles certainly aren’t making it onto the radio. By this point, lead singer Grian Chatten made good on his promise from “Big,” the first track on their first album: “My childhood was small / But I’m gonna be big.” The band has also reached another unique spot: the fourth album, where a band often makes or breaks their legacy. Consider Modest Mouse’s 2004 album Good News For People Who Love Bad News, Interpol’s 2010 self-titled album or The Strokes’ 2011 album Angles. These albums marked either a sharp turn away from the original sound of the group or confirmed that their time in the sun had clearly passed, only to struggle to reach something close to their original projects. This is what I had on my mind for Fontaines D.C. in the months leading up to Romance’s release. Their first three albums, Dogrel, A Hero’s Death and Skinty Fia create a pseudo-trilogy solely focused on Dublin, the heartache and myth baked into every inch of the city. Would they continue down the path that felt so expertly tied up in Skinty Fia?

Inspired by their trips abroad, notably to Tokyo, the group has returned to Ireland with a fully revitalized sonic palette filled with joy, color and vibrancy (not to mention a full Y2K makeover). Romance is an undeniably pop-infused project that balances the increased tempo and rolling melodies expertly against its existential lyricism and signature heavy guitar and bass tones. Big, winding punk tracks that Fontaines D.C. are known for, like “Hurricane Laughter”, are no where to be found on this project, but that’s not to say Romance lacks bold and creative songs. Their standout single “Starburster” is a punchy, upclose, anxious song with breaks for ethereal vocals that last just long enough before they pull you back down into the grime.  “Death Kink” is another highlight on the album that honestly could’ve fit right between “How Cold Love Is” and “Jackie Down the Line” on Skinty Fia. With big, crashing drums and a shouted chorus, it’s the type of cathartic track that lifts the album out of its more somber and dialed-back mediations and into familiar territory. The final track, “Favourite”, is easily my favorite track on the whole album. It’s a far cry from Fontaines D.C.’s comfort zone— the utilization of acoustic guitar and a bouncy electric melody paired with pop-y backing vocals makes for a sweet highnote to end the album, where previous projects have sent the listener off into the void of despair. 

While prior releases have delved into deep Irish myths and history, Romance tackles the obvious theme of love, but explores much more than just its title leaning more into the topics of platonic and familial love, never just resting on romance alone. This can be seen in tracks like “Motorcycle Boy” and “Favourite.” The most interesting exploration is in the Joyce-inspired “Horseness is the Whatness,” where Chatten meditates on the word “Love” itself: “The word is not so friendly / It brings some fucking baggage / It’s a word that’s used for lying / and never / Never would I trust,” and later, in the swelling moment of the track, Chatten asks, “Will someone / Find out what the word is / That makes the world go round? / ‘Cause I thought it was ‘love’.” In the under-three-minute track, Fontaines D.C. presents to us the deep complexities, power and ultimate fallibility of the word “love” or the action of “loving,” how it can be manipulated and how its utterance comes with a cost. And though Chatten has given up on “love” being the locus of control for the entire world, he discovers that “choice” is. The song finishes with “There’s not that much to miss / You choose or you exist.” This sentiment is, in many ways, the core of the project and the nexus for the stories and images built up in other songs. While you can love and love deeply, you have to choose to do so. 

Though each song is composed impressively, the individual meditations of love can sometimes be boiled down to just “love is both good and very hard,” and though the simplest conclusions can sometimes be the most interesting, it seems as if Fontaines D.C. is preoccupied with a sentiment that they nailed in their opening track “Romance.” Some lower points like “Here’s the Thing” and the very dreamy “Sundowner,” while both technically strong tracks, both fail to deepen the themes explored in the project and serve to lengthen this very short project. Because of this, the whole of the album can be hit or miss for some, but there is far more good than bad on Romance. 

I can see many who fell in love with the brooding, skull crushing and longing Dogrel and A Hero’s Death feeling disappointed with Romance or even tossing out the idea that the group “sold out.” I think this would be chalking up this new project as a shallow and meaningless new direction. It surely doesn’t hit as deep thematically as previous projects, but it does achieve much of what they set out to do. With a bold new direction, I think Fontaines D.C. killed it and left me wondering on their future experimentations. At times it seems like they could choose a genre off a dart board and crush it, all while imbuing their own style into every note. –wphughes 

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