Welcome to Hall of Fame! In this article, we take a look at different artists or bands each week and explore their history, best albums, and biggest hits!
For this week's chosen artist, we will be looking at Fontaines D.C.
Fontaines D.C. | Source: Atwood Magazine
Fontaines D.C.
Backstory
Fontaines D.C., if I haven’t had a love/hate relationship with this band, then I don’t know what I have had. From covering genres such as Post-Punk/Rock, Indie Rock, Shoegaze, Goth and even electronic, they do have a HUGE handful of tracks that everyone is able to enjoy from their years of releasing music.
Officially, creating music together and forming in 2014, they have been around for over 12 years! Though they didn’t start releasing music until 2017, the band clearly saw potential and knew that they had a perfect opportunity to take the music scene by storm. Members Grian Chatten, Carlos O’Connell, Conor Curley, Conor Deegan III and Tom Coll all met as students at the BIMM Music Institute in Dublin, all as broke uni students. Initially, they called themselves Fontaines D.C. They were originally just called Fontaines; this didn’t last long as there was already an American band called the same name. Obviously, they wanted to do something unique, which is why they opted for the latter, adopting “D.C.” at the end, which does stand for Dublin City!
Before the members even thought about creating music together, they bonded over their fondness for poetry and English literature. Spending countless hours talking about it all, from the likes of classic writers, W.B. Yeats James Joyce, and Patrick Kavanagh. Even, releasing two self-published poetry books before their initial music releases.
Fontaines D.C.
Top 5 Tracks
Chosen by me, below are Fontaines D.C.’s top 5 tracks across all of their releases.
- Starburster
- Bug
- Japan
- Where Is Gone?
- Six Shot Morning
Well, if these aren’t a great collection of tracks, I do say for myself. Spanning over two albums, Dopamine Chamber and Romace, I personally believe these are the highlights throughout their discography. Featuring heavy, breathy vocals throughout their track Starburster, which honestly I only initially heard from a show! This track is the theme of Mob Land, so after a few watches, it definitely quickly became one of my favourite tracks from the band.
While the track Japan, which is clearly moving towards a more experimental sound from the band, has a very emotional feel to the track, clearly focusing on the themes of someone being completely checked out of a relationship, it has clearly become one of their newest fan favourites, especially given that even Rolling Stone UK has gone on to say that this track is “one of the most beautiful Songs Fontaines D.C. have ever recorded.” It’s definitely worth a listen! If you do want to find out more when it comes to this track, please do have a read of what Brett has to say about it below!
Fontaines D.C.
Chosen by Brett
Japan
Now usually, we feature a track that I have specifically picked from an artist… but that is changing once again! We will now, every so often, be featuring a track picked by one of our fellow staff members! This week, Brett has picked the wonderful track Japan from their newest album! Let’s see what he has to say about why he likes it so much!
“Japan”, the 10th song on Dopamine's tracklist, has very quickly become one of my top listens of the album, and Fontaines discography in general. Compared to the other songs on the album, this track has much less focus on the dark and deep-sounding synths of the rest of the album. Instead, it is mostly centred around lighter-sounding acoustic guitar chords, which play in the foreground and persist throughout the entire song.
Fontaines D.C. Performing Live | Source: NME
It is a slow-paced song, with the drums and synths fading in and out at different points of the track. In short, this track reminds me much more of a song off Fontaines 4th studio album Romance (2024). Far more melodic than the rough and gritty-sounding songs of Dopamine Chamber. In an album that aims to return to and revitalise the sound popularised in Fontaines “Skinty Fia” and “Dogrel”, Japan feels like it sits alone as a leftover track, written more to the mood of “Romance” than a song to be compared to the likes of “Roman Holiday”.
Japan Album Art | Source: Spotify
Fontaines D.C.
Featured Album
Dopamine Chamber
Dopamine Chamber Merch Package | Source: Banquet Records
Tracklist
2. Marianne
3. Mimesis
5. Demolition
6. Tongue
7. One Man
9. You Miss Me
10. Japan
11. Intimate
Dopamine Chamber, releasing on October 16th this year! Is the latest album from the band. Featuring tracks such as Tongue, Japan & Happy For You, it definitely has a different feel from the rest of the releases Fontaines D.C. has had so far! Produced by the amazing James Ford, the band's frontman, Grian Chatten has gone on to describe this release as the title of the project says: a “Dopamine Chamber”, definitely dipping their toes in a sort of “90s alt-rock / dreamwave pop” sort of feel while highlighting their growth and inspiration as a whole.
Lyrically, the album covers all sorts of themes. From tracks such as “You Miss Me”, covering themes such as growing an emotional dependence on dopamine reward for all things technology, which is clearly highlighted in lyrics within the track such as “You wanna go to sleep and never wake up.” “And it comes right out of your pocket.” and “So you feel it’s never your time.” Clearly highlighting the constant need for validation and stimulation in our day-to-day lives, instead of living in the moment, we rely on our screens to make us feel something.
You Miss Me Performed, Later with Jools Holland | Source: YouTube
While on the track “Where Is Gone?”, which is the band's first-ever track to feature another artist (ROSALÍA) “, Where Is Gone?” covers themes of being unhappy within a relationship and, overall, it feels like it is IMPOSSIBLE to leave, covering both sides of the story via the band and ROSALÍA. It definitely has an overwhelming emotional heaviness throughout the whole track, blending acoustic guitar and incredible orchestral arrangements. I personally believe this track could definitely make me cry and feel emotional on the right day. The band definitely put A LOT of passion into this album, which is shown throughout this track especially. Multiple of the band members have spoken about what it was like to have ROSALÍA feature on this track, and how they were almost scared to even ask the artist to feature on the track.
ROSALÍA | British GQ
“I’ve got a suspicion that her heart is similar to mine… She’s such an incredible arranger and composer and lyricist. It’s just so humbling that she was into singing on something that we had arranged. It’s a career high for me, for sure.”
“I feel like the idea [to reach out to ROSALÍA] goes back to when we were doing the start of the record, the year before. We kind of started thinking about that idea again, and we were a little bit scared to ask, and we left it to the last minute. We’d like, mastered the record, and then we were like, “Maybe we should ask.” And she was so forthcoming.”
Where Is Gone? Vinyl | Source: Discogs
If this sounds like something you would enjoy, definitely give it a listen! I couldn’t recommend it enough.
What do you think about Fontaines D.C.? Have you listened to her before, or is this your first time hearing about Fontaines D.C.? Let us know in the comments below, and remember, we are always open to suggestions!
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| Brett 12 hours ago The G.O.A.T (Jameson) |