Fontaines D.C. Share Warped New Single 'Tongue'
Fontaines D.C. have released 'Tongue', the second single from their forthcoming fifth album 'Dopamine Chamber', out 16th October via XL Recordings.
Where lead single 'Marianne' leaned into opulence, 'Tongue' pulls the album's sound somewhere stranger. "We continued where Romance left off, leaving the live-band elements until they were really needed," says guitarist Conor Curley of the recording process. Bassist Conor Deegan manipulated tape speed to build the track's slouchy, Prince-indebted low end, while Carlos O'Connell pushed Grian Chatten's vocal through a sampler until it warps into something closer to an alien transmission than a human voice. Guitars screech and strings gradually pull the track apart at the seams, leaving one of the album's most visceral moments - physical and garbled, even as it's processed into something unrecognisable.
It's the clearest sign yet of just how far 'Dopamine Chamber' moves from the band's earlier guitar-driven records. The follow-up to 2024's platinum-certified 'Romance' also features a collaboration with ROSALÍA on 'Where Is Gone?', and was recorded with producer James Ford across London, the English countryside, and Palermo, where Chatten tracked vocals inside a makeshift booth built from mattresses and cushions. "The album itself is a dopamine chamber," Chatten explains. "You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you."
Across five albums - from 2019's 'Dogrel' through 'A Hero's Death', 'Skinty Fia' and 'Romance' - Fontaines D.C. have made a habit of refusing to repeat themselves. 'Dopamine Chamber' looks set to be their most radical shift yet, built around a question that feels increasingly urgent: what does pleasure look like on the edge of collapse?
'Tongue' is out now via XL Recordings.
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