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Romance (Fontaines D.C. album)

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Romance is the fourth studio album by Irish rock band Fontaines D.C. Announced on 17 April 2024 along with the lead single, "Starburster", it was released on 23 August 2024.[1] It also features the singles "Favourite", "Here's the Thing", "In the Modern World" and "Bug". It is their first release on XL Recordings, after the band left Partisan Records, and was produced by James Ford.

Romance
Studio album by
Fontaines D.C.
Released23 August 2024 (2024-08-23)
Length36:57
LabelXL
ProducerJames Ford
Fontaines D.C. chronology
Skinty Fia
(2022) 		Romance
(2024)
Singles from Romance
  1. "Starburster"
    Released: 17 April 2024
  2. "Favourite"
    Released: 18 June 2024
  3. "Here's the Thing"
    Released: 6 August 2024
  4. "In the Modern World"
    Released: 20 August 2024
  5. "Bug"
    Released: 4 November 2024

The album received acclaim from critics. In the United Kingdom, it sold more than double the first-week total of its number-one predecessor Skinty Fia. However, it debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart behind Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet.[2] Romance received two nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance (for "Starbuster").[3]

Background

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Grian Chatten told Mojo that they decided to step away from their Irish-centric themes for the album as it would have been too difficult to "sound like Ireland" while crafting a futuristic and dystopian vision called Romance. According to Chatten, the songwriting process was, as usual for the band, a "constant process" that happened between touring. The "spiritual form" of the album first emerged when he wrote the track "In the Modern World". He compared the process to soundtracking a city for which he finally understood the "colour and the year and the atmosphere and the temperature" of. The album was influenced by several locations as well as "certain atmospheres at certain times", including Tokyo. Chatten stated, "We write a lot more based on visual references than musical references. It's easier to be original." The album was also inspired by Japanese manga and Italian cinema.[4] The album is produced by James Ford. Drummer Tom Coll said that Romance was, in some ways, like the band's first-ever studio record in that they deliberately moved away from their long-held "if we can't play it live, let's not do it" mentality.[5]

"Horseness Is the Whatness", was written by guitarist Carlos O'Connell, and the title was taken from Ulysses.[5] The lyrics to "Here's the Thing" were built off the back of an argument between Chatten and O'Connell, and "In the Modern World" was inspired by Lana Del Rey's "strain of disillusionment".[6] "Favourite" originally had twelve verses written by Chatten, however, it was shortened to just four by the rest of the band. And, to Conor Curley, his lead vocals on "Sundowner" were by accident.[6]

Influences

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Frontman Grian Chatten noted the influence of Dylan Thomas and the book Land Sickness by Nikolaj Schultz[6] as well as the films Sunset Boulevard, The Great Beauty and Wings of Desire on his lyricism.[5]

In 2023, the band supported Arctic Monkeys on their North American tour and watched Blur play Wembley Stadium. Chatten said, "I didn't want to write, like, a "Champagne Supernova", but I did want to do something that felt like it was deep within and far without."[1] Guitarist Conor Curley found himself listening to much of Massive Attack and Portishead, as well as "Freedom Fighter" by Bowery Electric – feeling inspired by music that's already considered "classic". Drummer Tom Coll got "set off on a hip-hop vibe" – partially due to playing drums on the Kneecap album Fine Art – and immersed himself in grunge, going on to say he "probably left the house [Recording Studio] only three times in three weeks".[7]

The lead single "Starburster" saw guitarist Carlos O'Connell inspired by Deftones and Alice in Chains. It contains rapping, which Chatten said was influenced by Korn in a "tongue-in-cheek" manner, a band that "scared the shit out of me as a kid".[1]

"In the Modern World" is inspired by Akira's "depiction of apocalyptic emotion", with Chatten mentioning "..I can hear the buildings collapsing." Conor Deegan mentioned beat poets in reference to the song's feel, saying: "That song, I get visions of On the Road, Jack Kerouac, driving through the desert in America, the beat-up 1950s car, right? And they stop into the motel for some warm cans of beer. The AC isn't working. The fan is spinning half-speed. All that shit."[7]

The horror-inspired music video for single "Here's the Thing"[8] drew comparisons to the films The Lost Boys (1987) and Phenomena (1985).[9] It was directed by Luna Carmoon, who confirmed the influence of Phenomena, and commented:[10]

I had, at the time, recently rewatched one of my favourite films: Dario Argento's Phenomena, which is the biggest influence on the music video. I just thought it'd be fantastic to see a world like this in the backdrop of the Irish dancing arena. You have a lot of films like Drop Dead Gorgeous about American Beauty pageants, but you don't really have that in Britain or Ireland, that kind of hyper-femininity meets violence. The Lost Boys was another big influence. I wanted it to be Lost Boys but Girls.

Critical reception

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Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
SourceRating
AnyDecentMusic?8.8/10[11]
Metacritic89/100[12]
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic     [13]
The Guardian     [14]
The Irish Times     [15]
Mojo     [16]
NME     [17]
Pitchfork7.7/10[18]
Record Collector     [19]
Rolling Stone UK     [20]
Uncut8/10[21]

Keith Cameron of Mojo rated it 4 out of 5 stars, stating, "Inspired by Japanese manga and Italian cinema, the Irish quintet's fourth searches for truth in a world gone wrong." Cameron continued: "The more conventionally arranged Bug still has him [Grian] threading words like a tessellated moving pavement [...]. With the music's adjacency to "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", it occurs that just like The Smiths, this is a rock band with both a fresh vocabulary and behavioural code."[16]

Shaun Curran, while writing for Record Collector, gave the album 4 stars out of 5, concluding, "It's startling to think how far Fontaines D.C. have travelled creatively in five years, through an agitated, restlessness, a vivid imagination and courage to try the new." Curran also named "Favourite" as the best song on the album, describing it as a "sound-of-the-summer" track where shoegaze meets The Cure.[19]

The Irish Times's Tony Clayton gave the album a 4.5 out of 5 stars, concluding the band's evolution through the album as, "It's all quite a remove from "Boys in the Better Land", "Liberty Belle", "Too Real" and "Big", but Fontaines DC rightly ask what the point is if you have to ask permission to evolve." The last track "Favourite" also was named as the best song with "irresistible jangly guitars and, perhaps, is a sign of what to expect on album number five".[15]

Alexis Petridis, The Guardian's head rock and pop critic, named the album as "album of the week" - giving the album 5 out of 5 stars - and surmised the impact as: Romance is more straightforwardly approachable than any Fontaines DC album to date – you can easily imagine "Desire" provoking an immense crowd into singing along. But it doesn't sacrifice any of the band's potency in the process: thrillingly, it still carries the same grimy, careworn, aggressive qualities as their previous work."[14]

Uncut's Daniel Dylan rated it an 8/10, describing the album and the band's sonic evolution as, "From the electronic slow-build moody ruminations of Romance via the panic-attack-inspired "Starburster" or the swooping harmonies of "In the Modern World", it feels as though the band have carved out a new sonic space for them to operate in while still retaining their own identity."[21]

NME gave the album five stars, calling it "an album that charts the devastating duality of its title." They called Romance the band's "most considered and intricately crafted release yet".[17]

Year-end lists

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Select year-end rankings for Romance
Publication/critic Accolade Rank Ref.
MOJO 75 Best Albums of 2024 7 [22]
Uncut 80 Best Albums of 2024 13 [23]

Track listing

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All tracks are written by Grian Chatten, Conor Curley, Carlos O'Connell, Conor Deegan and Tom Coll, unless noted otherwise.

Romance track listing
No.TitleLyricsLength
1."Romance" 2:33
2."Starburster" 3:41
3."Here's the Thing" 2:43
4."Desire" 3:39
5."In the Modern World" 4:26
6."Bug" 3:02
7."Motorcycle Boy" 3:42
8."Sundowner"
  • Grian Chatten
  • Conor Curley
3:25
9."Horseness Is the Whatness"Carlos O'Connell3:07
10."Death Kink" 2:23
11."Favourite" 4:16
Total length:36:57

Personnel

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Fontaines D.C:

  • Grian Chatten – words, lead vocals (1–7, 9–11), piano, guitar (5, 7, 10, 11)
  • Conor Curley – guitar, bass (1, 2), lead vocals and words (8), backing vocals (1, 4, 6)
  • Carlos O'Connell – guitar, Mellotron (1, 2, 5, 8, 9), backing vocals (4, 7, 11), Yamaha Reface (1, 2, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10), words (9)
  • Connor Deegan III – bass, backing vocals (1–8, 10–11), co-lead vocals (5)
  • Tom Coll – drums, percussion, guitar (9)

Additional credits:

Charts

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Chart performance for Romance
Chart (2024) Peak
position
Australian Albums (ARIA)[25] 6
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[26] 7
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[27] 2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[28] 2
Croatian International Albums (HDU)[29] 4
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[30] 23
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100)[31] 2
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)[32] 32
French Albums (SNEP)[33] 3
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[34] 6
Irish Albums (OCC)[35] 2
Italian Albums (FIMI)[36] 8
Lithuanian Albums (AGATA)[37] 48
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[38] 6
Polish Albums (ZPAV)[39] 16
Portuguese Albums (AFP)[40] 4
Scottish Albums (OCC)[41] 2
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[42] 9
Swedish Physical Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[43] 3
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[44] 3
UK Albums (OCC)[45] 2
UK Independent Albums (OCC)[46] 1
US Billboard 200[47] 97
US Independent Albums (Billboard)[48] 16
US Top Rock & Alternative Albums (Billboard)[49] 20

References

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  1. ^ a b c Aroesti, Rachel (18 April 2024). "Fontaines DC: 'We can generate ideas that sound like they've been carved in stone for a thousand years'". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  2. ^ "Sabrina Carpenter scores record-breaking Official Chart Double with Short n' Sweet and Taste". Official Charts. 30 August 2024. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  3. ^ Atkinson, Katie (8 November 2024). "Grammy Nominations 2025: See the Complete List". Billboard. Retrieved 8 November 2024.
  4. ^ "Fontaines D.C. Interviewed: "Embracing the risk – that's fuckin' exhilarating."". Mojo. 23 July 2024. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  5. ^ a b c "Fontaines D.C.: Love Without Limits". Crack Magazine. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  6. ^ a b c "Fontaines D.C." 930 Club. Retrieved 15 July 2024.
  7. ^ a b "Grian Chatten of Fontaines DC: 'We were speeding off the edge of a cliff'". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  8. ^ Fontaines DC (6 August 2024). Fontaines D.C. - Here's The Thing (Official Video). Retrieved 8 August 2024 – via YouTube.
  9. ^ "Fontaines D.C. Share New Song "Here's The Thing": Listen". Stereogum. 6 August 2024. Retrieved 7 August 2024.
  10. ^ Dazed (6 August 2024). "Fontaines D.C.'s new video is a twisted take on teen girlhood". Dazed. Retrieved 8 August 2024.
  11. ^ "Romance by Fontaines D.C. reviews". AnyDecentMusic. Retrieved 9 September 2024.
  12. ^ "Romance by Fontaines D.C. Reviews and Tracks". Metacritic. Retrieved 26 August 2024.
  13. ^ Martin, Liam (23 August 2024). "Romance – Fontaines D.C." AllMusic. Retrieved 24 August 2024.
  14. ^ a b Petridis, Alexis (15 August 2024). "Fontaines DC: Romance review – arenas await, but on the band's own strange terms". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 16 August 2024.
  15. ^ a b "Fontaines DC: Romance – Incredibly compelling indie rock that takes the Dublin band to the next level". The Irish Times. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  16. ^ a b Mojo Magazine - Romance : Fontaines D.C. 11 July 2024.
  17. ^ a b "Fontaines D.C. – 'Romance' review: knockout, spiritual songs for the end of time". NME. 19 August 2024. Retrieved 19 August 2024.
  18. ^ Farrell, Margaret (22 August 2024). "Fontaines D.C.: Romance Album Review". Pitchfork. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  19. ^ a b Curran, Shaun (September 2024). "Romance". Record Collector. p. 132.
  20. ^ Reilly, Nick (22 August 2024). "Fontaines D.C. 'Romance' review: generational greats come of age". Rolling Stone UK. Retrieved 22 August 2024.
  21. ^ a b Dylan, Daniel (September 2024). "Romance". Uncut. p. 32.
  22. ^ "MOJO's 75 Best Albums of 2024". albumoftheyear.org. 11 November 2024. Retrieved 13 November 2024.
  23. ^ Pearis, Bill (8 November 2024). "List Season comes early with Uncut's Top 80 Albums of 2024". brooklynvegan.com. Retrieved 12 November 2024.
  24. ^ Whettingsteel, Josh (16 August 2024). "So Young Magazine – Interview – Meet Lulu Lin". So Young Magazine. Retrieved 17 August 2024.
  25. ^ "ARIA Top 50 Albums Chart". Australian Recording Industry Association. 2 September 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  26. ^ "Austriancharts.at – Fontaines D.C. – Romance" (in German). Hung Medien. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  27. ^ "Ultratop.be – Fontaines D.C. – Romance" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  28. ^ "Ultratop.be – Fontaines D.C. – Romance" (in French). Hung Medien. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  29. ^ "Lista prodaje 38. tjedan 2024. (09.09.2024. – 15.09.2024.) | Top Lista". Retrieved 2 October 2024.
  30. ^ "Hitlisten.NU – Album Top-40 Uge 35, 2024". Hitlisten. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  31. ^ "Dutchcharts.nl – Fontaines D.C. – Romance" (in Dutch). Hung Medien. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  32. ^ "Fontaines D.C.: Romance" (in Finnish). Musiikkituottajat – IFPI Finland. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  33. ^ "Top Albums (Week 35, 2024)". Syndicat National de l'Édition Phonographique. Retrieved 2 September 2024.
  34. ^ "Offiziellecharts.de – Fontaines D.C. – Romance" (in German). GfK Entertainment Charts. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  35. ^ "Official Irish Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  36. ^ "Album – Classifica settimanale WK 35 (dal 23.08.2024 al 29.08.2024)" (in Italian). Federazione Industria Musicale Italiana. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  37. ^ "2024 35-os savaitės klausomiausi (Top 100)" (in Lithuanian). AGATA. 30 August 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  38. ^ "NZ Top 40 Albums Chart". Recorded Music NZ. 2 September 2024. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  39. ^ "OLiS - oficjalna lista sprzedaży - albumy" (in Polish). OLiS. Polish Society of the Phonographic Industry. Note: Change the date to 23 August 2024–29 August 2024 under "zmień zakres od–do:". Retrieved 5 September 2024.
  40. ^ "Portuguesecharts.com – Fontaines D.C. – Romance". Hung Medien. Retrieved 6 September 2024.
  41. ^ "Official Scottish Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  42. ^ "100 Albums weekly". PROMUSICAE. Retrieved 8 September 2024.
  43. ^ "Veckolista Album Fysiskt, vecka 35". Sverigetopplistan. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  44. ^ "Swisscharts.com – Fontaines D.C. – Romance". Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 September 2024.
  45. ^ "Official Albums Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 30 August 2024.
  46. ^ "Official Independent Albums Chart Top 50". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 31 August 2024.
  47. ^ "Fontaines D C Chart History (Billboard 200)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  48. ^ "Fontaines D C Chart History (Independent Albums)". Billboard. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
  49. ^ "Fontaines D.C. Chart History: Top Rock & Alternative Albums". Billboard. Retrieved 4 September 2024.
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