“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity.” That sentiment of the obvious stating the apparent arrives today from Fontaines D.C. voice Grian Chatten, as the celebrated Dublin band, they of 2024 Album of the Decade contender Romance, ready a swell of new sounds to flood the fleeting feeling of autumn and our downward spiral into societal pandemonium.
Leading the way is the release today of a hypnotic slow-burn single in “Marianna,” a song about escapism and hedonism that opens a portal to where Fontaines D.C. are bound to lead us next. And we have already purchased the ticket to ride whether we realize it or not.
Where Romance was truly the band’s breakout, building on a foundation established by the four albums that preceded it, the band’s forthcoming sixth record, Dopamine Chamber, out October 16 via XL Recordings and produced by James Ford, is a chance to cleanse the palette and properly reflect the chaos in which we bathe on the daily. Romance was an album that stared deep into the physical world around us, showing its realness with a sprinkling of naive hope without offering a single wince, and now Dopamine Chamber promises something a bit more ethereal, arriving at a time when our sense of longing has never felt so spiritual.
“I think Romance was maybe 60 percent human and 40 percent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling,” Chatten adds. “This one feels more like 60 percent corrupted — the mask is wearing the face a little more… I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
And that shines through the lyrics here on “Marianne” as the band explores a new sonic highway away from the traditional structures and into something more experimental and electronic. Chatten sings like the voice in our heads telling us just how to make sense to things. And when to vacate entirely.
“This year, you should come and stay here / You can follow my lead / I can help you disappear,” Chatten offers in the lyrics. It’s a promising invitation, as we remain fully conscious of the catastrophe that soon awaits.
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