Album Review: Fontaines D.C. - 'Dopamine Chamber'
The roaring success of 2024’s ‘Romance’ unquestionably cemented Fontaines D.C. as the biggest rock act since Arctic Monkeys. Proof of this lies in the fact that you seemingly can’t be at a gig or festival anywhere in the world these days and go more than five minutes without spotting one of those radiant blue and pink Bohs shirts with the band’s logo emblazoned on the front.
Resounding critical acclaim and an unignorably bold change in the band’s look, sound and style set them apart from the indie circles they had risen through, laying the foundations for the kind of album campaign most bands could only dream of. Frontman Grian Chatten said himself during the album’s rollout that this was the only campaign that he had actually enjoyed basking in, and that usually by this point he’d be “bored as fuck” and already restlessly thinking about the next chapter.
Of course, the big question is: where do they go from here? With the stakes now set so much higher, how do they move forward from that colossal moment they created for themselves with the last record?
The Irish five-piece have been far less abrupt in bringing the ‘Romance’ era to a close, gradually introducing the sound of their fifth studio album, ‘Dopamine Chamber’, by debuting new material across a string of late-summer shows. It all culminated in the album’s announcement, which arrived just before their two career-defining headline sets at Reading and Leeds at the end of August. Yet this milestone was tempered by profound loss, following the tragic passing of the band’s longtime manager and de facto sixth member, Trevor Dietz, in June, a figure who had been beside Fontaines D.C. from their earliest days and played an instrumental role in their ascent.
Unlike the vibrant, euphoric ‘Romance’, released at the height of summer, ‘Dopamine Chamber’ feels decidedly moodier and more autumnal. Their previous three records have all featured tension-building title tracks that clearly capture the feel of the album more broadly. While this album does not feature a title track, the band apply this same formula with opener ‘Six Shot Morning’, which tells the listener what they might have already gathered from lead singles ‘Marianne’ and ‘Tongue’: the album is plentiful in all manner of synthesisers and eerie Nick Cave-isms.
One way the band have capitalised on their newfound mainstream success is by teaming up with atypical pop powerhouse Rosalía on ‘Where Is Gone?’ - a collaboration that might once have seemed unlikely, had the Catalan singer’s latest album ‘LUX’ not showcased her unwavering determination to work with artists from across the musical spectrum.
At times reminiscent of a Bond theme, the ballad leans into the soaring violins first heard on 2024’s ‘In The Modern World’. It’s also Chatten’s strongest vocal performance on the record, an area that is unfortunately something of a weak point elsewhere on the album. Though an unquestionably talented lyricist,Chatten seems to fluctuate primarily between two vocal modes on this project: the breathy, elongated phrasing heard on ‘Happy For You’ and ‘One Man’, and the choppier, more aggressive cadence of ‘Demolition’. While his voice undoubtedly carries a gloomy mystique that complements the aesthetic the band have cultivated over the years, these limited variations can become repetitive, leaving you wishing he had experimented a little more behind the mic.
In regards to the aforementioned question of how best to navigate the post-‘Romance’ era, it appears the band may have struggled with the answer somewhat themselves. While by no means a disappointing record, ‘Dopamine Chamber’ feels in many ways like the hangover of ‘Romance’: building upon the same poppier sonic principles that distinguished its predecessor from the band’s earlier work, but without quite recapturing the immediacy that made that transition so exhilarating.
The influence of The Cure looms particularly large, both in the record’s brooding atmosphere and its exploration of darker, more melancholic themes, yet where ‘Romance’ paired those tendencies with an abundance of outright bangers, ‘Dopamine Chamber’ is noticeably more restrained. There is plenty here to admire, but comparatively little that grabs you by the collar, leaving the album caught somewhere between an intriguing continuation of the band’s evolution and the lingering after-effects of the record that preceded it.
3/5
'Dopamine Chamber' is out now via XL Recordings.
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