Fontaines DC, who have just been in our country this month, performing in incredible venues in Pamplona, Alicante and the Baluarte de la Candelaria, are back with a new album. Precisely on this new tour they have released 2 new songs, ‘Six Shot Morning’ and ‘Marianne’, and the latter has turned out to be the first preview of their next album. It’s our Song of the Day today.
A few days ago the Irish band dropped that their new album could be titled ‘Dopamine Chamber’ and that information has been confirmed today. The album is ready now and will be released on October 16, that is, in less than 2 months. Pre-preorders are now available.
Grian Chatten has stated that the album gets its name because they simply consider it a true “dopamine chamber”, in a new reflection on humanity and non-humanity; while bassist Conor Deegan explained: “Our albums have always questioned the idea of place.” “First Dublin, then being away from Dublin and then trying to find romance in other places. On this album the question became: where do you escape to?”
On the one hand, they point towards “oneself, towards hedonism, fantasy, aesthetic perfection, eternal youth or the endless gesture of updating a screen.” On the other hand, back on Earth, they talk about Venice, Vienna and Sicily as places of inspiration.
Clues about ‘Dopamine Chamber’ in the press release
According to the XL label, the album produced by James Ford leaves behind “the guitar language of his first albums to delve into a colder, strange and synthetic sound.”
‘Marianne’ is partly inspired by the suspense series ‘Ripley’ (2024), to talk about escapism and hedonism as a “siren song, offering the listener an escape route from oblivion—or towards it.” The song proposes giving up imagination or being aware of the catastrophe.
The press release is generous in metaphors and descriptions about what we will find on the album: «’Dopamine Chamber’ appears like a constellation behind billowing sighs of smog: powerful ballads and anthem melodies that shine through the darkness. In a world that seems to be moving towards collapse, the album asks how pleasure is transformed in the midst of danger and what our search for that pleasure reveals about us (…) The group moves between gratification and fear until the two end up merging, reflecting the saturation caused by artificial intelligence, environmental collapse and political violence, all circulating through the same algorithms as memes, jokes and celebrity culture.
Adds Grian Chatten: “I think ‘Romance’ was maybe 60% human and 40% corrupted by automation and loss of sensitivity. This one seems more like 60% corrupted: the mask is taking the place of the face a little more (…) I felt it would be more powerful to remove hope and honestly reflect the ugliness. This album needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
Review of ‘Marianne’
In ‘Marianne’, the guitars actually give way to the synthesizers in a song with a very kinetic point: the “cinematic feeling” is something that is explicitly mentioned in the chorus. A string section also appears. These Fontaines DC are as close to Italy (and France) as or even more than the latest Arctic Monkeys, also sounding close to an epic, synthetic and melancholic soundtrack, like ‘Drive’. This “Marianne” has, therefore, nothing to do with that of Leonard Cohen, whom the group has remembered on other occasions.
The lyrics of the song cannot avoid a fatal destiny: “You can follow me, I can help you disappear,” he indicates before adding: “understand that this is your life, although you can continue dreaming.” The outro continues to combine dreams (“my dreams are made of you”, “you also dream of me”), although the sad cadence of the melody and production make us reconsider whether dreaming is possible in that “60% corrupted” world to which they appeal.
The paranoid video presents Grian Chatten surrounded by evil forces that squeeze and oppress him, that repress and feed him.
