Grabbing your consciousness unexpectedly with a deeply rich futuristic sound is Romance. The album subverts the notion of romantic love being a beautiful and gloriously joyous experience through a dour opening line: “into the darkness again.” It throws you into a dystopian world of booming, crashing and distant rattles that make you feel as though there’s something dreadful creeping up behind you.
If it weren’t for Grian Chatten’s distinctly raw and breathy vocal performance, as well as his stunningly dark and profoundly considered lyricism, a new listener wouldn’t be at fault for believing this fourth release from the indie band hailing from Dublin was actually in no way related to them. Fontaine’s D.C.’s Romance is a radical departure from the gritty class-conscious Irish post punk style of music that defined them from their explosion onto the indie scene in 2019 with Dogrel. Sonically, the album is far out of the assumed comfort zone of the band; the introduction of new influences in classic Italian cinema and Japanese mangas depicting cyberpunk retrofutures inspired the band to toy with their sound. The result is a move away from their nostalgically rough-edged Ireland-centric themes towards a dystopian society of shrill sounds, gorgeous instrumentation and a warped sense of emotion, romance and desire. The high-quality production is not new for the band – particularly in terms of the production level of their third album Skinty Fia – however it is elevated to new heights here; the album’s producer, James Ford, has had a decorated career, producing for Depeche Mode and Arctic Monkeys.
Romance has many standout songs – ‘Starburster’, ‘In the Modern World’, ‘Sundowner’ and ‘Favourite’ just to name a few – yet the progression of the album is not in any way hindered by this fact. The flow is very natural, reflecting a mix of strong emotions from bliss, depression, desperation, all with an underlying theme of the pain of a misunderstood desire for genuine human connection drawing them together. Despite the eclectic sound and rollercoaster of emotions, the carefully considered flow keeps the listener strapped in tightly.
I have noticed a pattern early on in the track listing: a calm/resonant song, is followed by a more upbeat or sometimes more histrionic track. For example, the mollifying yet orchestral sound of hollow love in ‘In The Modern World’ is ushered out by the 2024 indie classic ‘Bug’, a song I visualise more at a park gig as opposed to the dimly lit setting where I envision the former to have the greatest emotional effect. This little pattern is trashed after ‘Motorcycle Boy’, which is followed by the epitome of resonance itself: ‘Sundowner’. The different styles of music from trip-hop to bedroom rock to shoegaze show the many sides to the concept at hand, showing a generally great expression of the different interpretations of the theme as well as a well-considered track list. The lyricism is truly gorgeous, particularly on ‘Starburster’ and ‘Desire’, my personal favourites in terms of Chatten’s poeticism.
All in all, Romance is a personal favourite of mine. It’s truly wonderful to see a band actively destroy the critically acclaimed box they have constructed for themselves and come out even better on the other side. I would give this album a 94 out of 100; The production and sound quality is outstanding, as is the quality of the lyricism and the creativity of the expression of the concept. The only (exceedingly minor) drawbacks were the concept itself which is a rather common one but they get points for the sheer creativity it takes to make an outstanding album with such an everyday idea.
Rating Scale:
100 = Perfect as humanly possible in every way.
90 = Outstandingly awesome, very negligible flaws, if noticeable.
80 = Great album with lots to enjoy, good quality and/or concept.
70 = Good album overall, but has quality-reducing flaws or forgettable songs.
60 = Alright album, has a few gems but far from common on the album.
50 = Almost completely indifferent. One or two stand-out songs but mostly forgettable.
40 = Mediocre album overall. Nothing good stands out, tolerable listening experience.
30 = Poor album, bad songs with negligible quality and/or concept.
20 = Bad. Nothing redeeming aside from possibly the concept in idea or attempted creativity.
10 = Spectacularly terrible. Only context/background could possibly save this.
00 = Despicably and criminally awful. Singular merit is how fantastically bad it is, if even that.
Criteria:
Track list:
