Release Date: 23 August 2024
Song Count: 11
Duration: 36 minutes, 57 seconds
Rating: 6.8/10
Description:
Song Count: 11
Duration: 36 minutes, 57 seconds
Rating: 6.8/10
Description:
The widely acclaimed Irish rock band Fontaines D.C. and their equally successful fourth album Romance greets us into the next destination on our musical journey of discovery. A step away from the usual conventions of the band to blend their flavour indie rock with sounds of their Celtic heritage, this record of theirs instead provides a future-oriented and dystopian sonical landscape, described by its masterminds to be inspired by visual media from around the world, like Japanese manga and Italian films. With layers of complexity within the artistry and meaning behind it, the experience offered here leaves a big chunk to analyse and digest.
The eleven tracks of this piece, in spite of their classic rock instrumentation with touches of enhancements through strings and some digital means, have a sound tapestry that is difficult to pinpoint in its exact nature. Hooks of memorability are not scattered throughout, but do persist when they are needed, as is the case with specific cases like "In The Modern World", and the general feel, in a way, seems far more grounded than one may be led to believe by its inspiratory connections. Singer Grian Chatten's vocals are artsy, slanted and displaying of curious emotions mixed in together with a coat of detachment, and though the instruments themselves rarely get a moment to spark up individually, they all follow the expertises given by the layouts of what they are playing well enough to make things sound clean and professing.
Though a few more tracks of note would have certainly helped the album as a whole having more stable legs underneath it, nothing within Romance particularly strikes as unworthy of experiencing either, and the whole things winds up to be an interesting project that detracts from what Fontaines D.C. have musically established for themselves throughout their music presence. The bouncing lyrical flow of "Starburster" and the hooking angle of "In The Modern World" find themselves to be particular highlights of the crowd of tracks that make them most noticeably faithful to the premise of the piece. Overall, while not representing anything groundbreaking, it is a qualitative work from the band that is a step in a more exploratory direction and possesses some intriguing musical artistry and inspiration.