The Dublin band have released the second single from their album Romance, after ‘Starburster’ in April.
‘Favourite’ is a song that finds the band at their most Whipping Boy-esque with a sound that feels like a /throwback late 80s Irish indie rock and ’90s UK indie touchstones like early Stone Roses. It closes the record.
The self-directed video features footage of the band as children juxtaposed with a recent trip to Madrid, a city where guitarist Carlos O’Connell was born and grew up.
Watch:
“This video is a reminiscing of the past- of each other’s childhoods we didn’t know. To see people we know on an intimate level as adults in the tender ages of childhood, we explore where we came from, and who on some level, still are. I see a lot of familiar faces being pulled, and the antics these lads are undertaking in their videos are so disarming and vulnerable to see. I am at times reminded of boyish mannerisms that they’ve grown out of in the time I’ve known them – and some that they haven’t. I feel their souls there.
I would like this video to serve as a way of honouring our friendships, and moving from that, the relationships we hold dear. Our mothers, fathers, siblings, aunties and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. Those who we still have, and those we have sadly lost.
We haven’t lost that connection to each other, and are not afraid to come of age again, holding on to romance in a sometimes trying world.”
Fontaines D.C.’s Conor Deegan
Romance is out August 23rd on XL.
The band will perform the song live on Later With Jools Holland this Saturday 22nd June.
Fontaines D.C. – Romance Tracklist
- Romance
- Starburster
- Here’s The Thing
- Desire
- In The Modern World
- Bug
- Motorcycle Boy
- Sundowner
- Horseness is the Whatness
- Death Kink
- Favourite
FONTAINES D.C. LIVE 2024
18 Jun – Warsaw, PL – Stodola (SOLD OUT)
19 Jun – Poznan, PL – Tama (SOLD OUT)
21 Jun – Scheeßel, DE – Hurricane
22 Jun – Tuttlingen, DE – Southside
23 Jun – Tuscany, IT – La Prima Estate
25 Jun – Rome, IT – Auditorium Parco Della Musica (SOLD OUT)
26 Jun – Lausanne, CH – Les Docks
28 Jun – Glastonbury, UK – Glastonbury
28 Jul – Naeba, JP – Fuji Rock
9 Aug – Haldern, DE – Haldern Pop
11 Aug – Budapest, HU – Sziget Festival
12 Aug – Ljubljana, SL – Kino Siska (SOLD OUT)
13 Aug – Vienna, AT – Vienna Arena
15 Aug – Charleville Mezières, FR – Cabaret Vert Festival
16 Aug – Hasselt, BE – Pukkelpop
17 Aug – Parades, PT – Parades De Coura
20 Aug – Istanbul, TU – Zorlu
24 Aug – Reading, UK – Reading Festival
25 Aug – Leeds, UK – Leeds Festival
20 Sep – Seattle, WA – Showbox SoDo
21 Sep – Portland, OR – Roseland Theater
22 Sep – Vancouver, BC – Commodore Ballroom (SOLD OUT)
24 Sep – San Francisco, CA – The Warfield
26 Sep – Los Angeles, CA – Hollywood Palladium
27 Sep – San Diego, CA – SOMA
28 Sep – Pomona, CA – Fox Theater
30 Sep – Phoenix, AZ – The Van Buren
2 Oct – Englewood, CO – Gothic Theatre (SOLD OUT)
4 Oct – Lawrence, KS – The Granada
5 Oct – Omaha, NE – Slowdown
6 Oct – Madison, WI – The Sylvee
8 Oct – Minneapolis, MN – The Fillmore
9 Oct – Chicago, IL – The Salt Shed
11 Oct – Toronto, ON – Queen Elizabeth Theatre
12 Oct – Montreal, QC – MTELUS
13 Oct – Boston, MA – Roadrunner
15 Oct – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount (SOLD OUT)
16 Oct – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Paramount
18 Oct – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club (SOLD OUT)
19 Oct – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club
20 Oct – Philadelphia, PA – The Fillmore
1 Nov – Lisbon, PT – Sagres Campo Pequeno
2 Nov – Madrid, ES – WiZink Center
4 Nov – Milan, IT – Alcatraz
5 Nov – Zurich, CH – X-TRA
7 Nov – Munich, DE – Zenith
8 Nov – Berlin, DE – Uber Eats Music Hall
9 Nov – Copenhagen, DK – K.B. Hallen
11 Nov – Hamburg, DE – Sporthalle
12 Nov – Cologne, DE – E-Werk
13 Nov – Paris, FR – Zénith Paris-La Villette
15 Nov – Brussels, BE – Forest National
16 Nov – Amsterdam, NL – AFAS (SOLD OUT)
17 Nov – Amsterdam, NL – AFAS
20 Nov – Wolverhampton, UK – The Halls (SOLD OUT)
22 Nov – London, UK – Alexandra Palace (SOLD OUT)
23 Nov – London, UK – Alexandra Palace (SOLD OUT)
24 Nov – Cardiff, UK – Utilita Arena
26 Nov – Plymouth, UK – Pavilions
27 Nov – Nottingham, UK – Motorpoint Arena
29 Nov – Manchester, UK – Aviva Studios (SOLD OUT)
29 Nov – Manchester, UK – Aviva Studios (SOLD OUT)
1 Dec – Manchester, UK – Aviva Studios (SOLD OUT)
3 Dec – Leeds, UK – First Direct Arena
4 Dec – Glasgow, UK – OVO Hydro
6 Dec – Dublin, IE – 3Arena (SOLD OUT)
7 Dec – Dublin, IE – 3Arena
About Fontaines D.C. – Romance
ROMANCE is Fontaines D.C.s most ambitious, expansive record yet, its 11 tracks constellating ideas that have been percolating among Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums) since they released Skinty Fia in 2022.
These ideas crystalised while touring the U.S. and Mexico with Arctic Monkeys as the five band members shared music and found a throughline with artists that deftly build out their own sprawling creative worlds: the attitude and aesthetic sheen of artists like Shygirl and Sega Bodega, the bolshy sonic palettes of the likes of Mos Def, A$AP Ferg, OutKast and The Prodigy.
They had time apart to build more singular visions for what future music could be: O’Connell went to Spain’s Castile-La Mancha and later became a new father, while Chatten spent time in LA, and Deegan in Paris. They laid deeper roots in London.
Each member spent time pushing their boundaries – experimental riffs, chord progressions, and far-flung lyrical references without intentions for a record. After wrapping up the US arena tour in Autumn 2023, they spent a month writing together again, three weeks of pre-production in a North London studio, and a month in a chateau close to Paris, sleeping among studio equipment, completely immersed.
Of the album’s title, Conor Deegan says, “We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance. Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as (Mercury Prize-nominated debut) Dogrel. The second album (the GRAMMY-nominated A Hero’s Death) is about that detachment, and the third (Skinty Fia) is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.”
Expounding on the theme, Chatten recalls Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s anime Akira, where the embers of love develop despite a maelstrom of technological degradation and political corruption around its characters.
“I’m fascinated by that – falling in love at the end of the world,” he says. “The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes,” while O’Connell adds “This record is about deciding what’s fantasy – the tangible world, or where you go in your mind. What represents reality more? That feels almost spiritual for us.”
The sonic evolution of the band, who bared their teeth in early records with antagonistic punk sensibilities, is an ascent into grungier breaks, dystopian electronica, hip-hop percussion, and dreamy Slowdive-esque textures that may surprise fans.
The shoegaze touchpoints first pressed on Skinty Fia unfold on ROMANCE like a purpling bruise. But any “retro aesthetic”, as Chatten describes it, is left behind. Reflecting on the impending release, Chatten says, “We say things on this record we’ve wanted to say for a long time. I never feel like it’s over, but it’s nice to feel lighter.” The fantasy is felt for better or worse, and Fontaines D.C. welcome either end of oblivion.
