Romance
A cinematic shift into dystopian, neon-lit alternative rock. Gritty post-punk meets lush shoegaze textures, hip-hop cadences, and sweeping string arrangements.
A cinematic shift into dystopian, neon-lit alternative rock. Gritty post-punk meets lush shoegaze textures, hip-hop cadences, and sweeping string arrangements.
Widescreen reinvention
Fluorescent pink vinyl and heavy, hip-hop-inflected drumbeats replace the rain-slicked Dublin cobblestones of their youth. Leaving behind the claustrophobic post-punk that defined their early rise, this record plunges you into a cinematic, neon-lit wasteland of distorted guitars and sweeping strings. You can feel the damp heat of the studio as the vocals shift from snarling spoken-word to a lush, shoegaze-drenched croon. It is a deliberate leap into the surreal, trading gritty realism for dystopian romance. By embracing a glossy, widescreen production, they turn anxiety into something massive, beautiful, and strange enough to fill stadiums.
The band trades their raw, live-in-a-room energy for a heavily layered dense studio polish, wrapping their post-punk foundation in thick shoegaze textures and massive, cinematic hip-hop beats.
Critics warmly welcomed the band's sonic evolution, widely praising the integration of melodic pop elements, rich orchestral arrangements, and experimental rhythms. Reviewers found this more approachable, cinematic direction to be their most thoughtfully crafted work yet, tempering their sound without losing any of their signature intensity.
“New producer James Ford brings depth and richness to a knockout record that is pleasingly disjointed”Read review
“The all-conquering Dublin five-piece hit expansive new heights on an album full of highlights”Read review
“This is no elementary Valentine’s card; it’s a treacherous and wonderfully unreliable encyclopedia of romance”Read review
“Fontaines D.C. finally sound like they’re in that better land, shedding their skins with an infectious grin and an even more infectious pack of choruses. Dare you to try and not smile along”Read review
“Romance delivers: the record is wildly expansive, and Fontaines’ bullheaded integrity still stands, perhaps with a stronger spine than ever”Read review
“Fontaines D.C.’s ‘Romance’ should be considered a high-water mark for them, a work that is equally challenging and considerably more gratifying”
“It’s a stunning record, one of depth but also immediacy; it exists to be adored”Read review
“In many ways all their albums have their own identity, replete with shifts in their sound. Romance just happens to be the biggest leap so far, moving much further from their rough and ready beginnings”Read review
“Switching to James Ford for production (Arctic Monkeys, Foals, Jessie Ware), Ford’s renowned ability to bring together ambitiously decadent ideas reigns supreme here”Read review
“It seems everything they touch turns to gold and Romance is a fully realized album that is colorful, flashy, and ominous and loaded with subtly catchy hooks that beg to be heard over and over again”Read review
“On its fourth album, the Irish group trades steely post-punk for stadium-sized alt rock with a hefty dose of Y2K nostalgia. It’s an unexpected shift, but they handle it with panache”Read review
““You been my favourite for a long time,” Chatten croons. The feeling is mutual, mate”Read review
Cassette uses generative AI to enrich its catalog. How we use AI →
