Can a band or artist deliver a SOTY contender right after dropping the AOTY? Chappell Roan did it in 2023 into 2024 with The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess into “Good Luck, Babe,” and so it makes perfect sense that bridging last year’s vibe with the fresh sound of now is Fontaines D.C., the Dublin standouts who follow the era-defining ROMANCE album with an elegantly dramatic new single called “It’s Amazing To Be Young.”
The James Ford-produced track hit the streams this past Friday (February 21) via XL Recordings, a few weeks before the 7-inch drops, and it’s just fucking massive.
“It’s Amazing To Be Young is a song that was written in the presence of a newborn child — Carlos’ child,” says bassist Conor Deegan III, citing guitarist Carlos O’Connell. “It sounded more like a lullaby or a music box then, but with the same lyric — ‘it’s amazing to be young’. The feeling of hope a child can give is profound and moving, especially for young men like us. That sense of wanting to create a world for them to grow up in happily. It’s a feeling that fights against the cynicism that can often overtake us in the modern world. So we wanted to declare which side we were on — it really is amazing to be young. We are still free, and want to make that feeling spread. We want to protect it for the others around us, and maybe in doing that, can also help protect it for ourselves.”
“It’s Amazing To Be Young” arrives with an official video from BAFTA-winning filmmaker Luna Carmoon (Hoard, Shagbands), who provided the creative vision for the Irish band’s videos for “Here’s The Thing” and “In The Modern World.”
And now there’s a bit of a cinematic universe developing, as the visual completes a trilogy by bringing together the actors from the prior videos (Ewan Mitchell’s Martin from “In The Modern World” and Grace Collender’s Spider from “Here’s The Thing) for what’s dubbed “an unlikely but beautifully surreal love story.”
“I love this new track — it’s one of my favourites Fontaines have done and I love that I got to complete the trilogy of videos for it,” says Carmoon. “It was all natural and kind of a surprise that the three videos came together. I’ve got to work with such a beautiful team and was really given the space and breath to create the worlds that automatically came to me when hearing the music. I feel like we’re living in this weird time where romantic love is being pushed to the side, and sex and love is unvirtuous and no longer what people want to see. I don’t believe that at all. I love that these two people have fallen in love with themselves, and I wanted to see them fall in love with each other.”
Feel it below.