We review “Dopamine Chamber”, the new album by Fontaines DC
It seems like a lie, but “Dogrel”the debut of Fontaines DCwas published in 2019. Almost the day before yesterday. The amazing thing about the Dubliners is not so much that they refused to follow the path marked by that very good alternative guitar rock album, but rather that their instinct (and taste) to seek new paths has expanded their audience exponentially. A connection that few bands have the privilege of treasuring. Some Roman philosopher already said two thousand years ago that fortune favors the brave.
Looking at their productivity, and how they have evolved their sound, there is something in their character that is rare in an already long era, in which the more or less broad stroke revival has become a refined art form that produces immediate returns. But with their second album, and especially the third, the quintet decided that they were not even willing to copy themselves, and this work, like the previous one, is nothing more than the brilliant expression of this almost lost ambition. The fifth album since 2019.
The second album for XL arrives just over two years after their definitive explosion. The majestic single “Marianne” with its glorious chorus and heavenly choirs – Mike Mills would be proud of how these guys do it – could be misleading, in the sense of making us wait for the group’s electronic album. That would have meant following a relatively easy and well-trodden path, that of guitar groups suddenly switching to analog synthesizers (or the other way around). And yes, there are quite a few synthesizers and synthetic drums here, but the band proposes a dazzling festival of instrumentation – including guitars, of course –, sounds and a production that combines futurism with timeless classicism, something they master like few others.
From the hypnotic start of “Six Shoot Morning”the singer Grian Chatten tries different registers – from the beyond-the-tomb baritone to Ian Curtis to the melodic – with excellent results. He is surrounded by a group that is once again committed to containment and forming a mechanism at the service of the songs.
Fontaines DC. are capable of resurrecting the spirit of New Order in “Mimesis”; of almost industrial electronic clothing the aforementioned first single “Marianne”; of combining darkness with a purely pop chorus (“You Miss Me”); to breathe hip-hop and dub into a song with Irish soul and cartoon choruses (“Tongue”); but also to complete an amazing duet with Rosalía – preceded by the string prelude of “One Man”–, a timeless romantic fantasy with one foot in a sixties that never existed. In any record, Fontaines DC They appear full, but they are also perfectly comfortable with an acoustic and a voice, the basis of everything. “Japan” could be considered the “Favorite” of the lot.
In search of chinks of light in this crazy world, they exhibit humanity, they are not infallible. Being willing to make mistakes instead of staying comfortably within the limits of the comfort zone has brought them here. It is true that on this new album they do very little, or almost nothing. They have found in the musician and producer James Ellis Ford an ideal accomplice to delve into an aesthetic path that has taken them to new worlds without leaving their soul along the way. Because (good) music is still our favorite dopamine chamber.
