BRAND SPANKIN' NEW!!: "Romance"- Fontaines D.C. REVIEW

Lads, we may have found the album of the year. Or one of ‘em, anyway. Finally, after months of waiting, "Romance" has been released and low and behold- we’ve got one ‘ell of a review for yez!

It’s not secret us lot at Dead Pop Mag Society are well up ver D.C. band’s arse and there’s no doubt we’ll be belting out summa the tracks from this banger of an album next year at Finsbury Park, when Fontaines play their biggest show yet alongside Aussie punks Amyl & The Sniffers n noisy Irish rap trio, Kneecap. The singles from this record have been spewing out our speakers for months and have already become solid live staples. Lead track “Starburster”, shouts n snarls over a swirly soundscape and singing along makes us feel like rap gods, whilst second single, “Favourite”, has us going all soppy for our mates (admit it, there’s a track like it on every album ever made). Meanwhile, “In The Modern World”, released two days prior to Romance, moans about, well, "the modern world" and how mopey and miserable it’s become, whereas it’s big brother, by a week or two, “Here’s The Thing”, well and truly hits the heavy spot. 

It’s not just the singles packing a punch though, with the debut of album opener and title track, being pelted out in the band's headline slot on The Park stage at Glasto this year. A dark and broody track, it starts off like "Enter Sandman" and quickly turns into some sorta hallucinogenic horror movie score. If, like Grian Chatten (the man that he is) states- “Romance is a place”- then it’s a cinema that plays The Exorcist on repeat and I for one want to go there. 

The cinematic elements don’t stop there, no no. On their debut, "Dogrel", there’s a track called "Big" and on this one there’s one called "Bug". And lemme tell you, this ‘un is bloody brilliant. The backing track is all Bondy- as in James, not the former Catfish n The Bottlemen guitarist. Just have a lil listen to that intro- ripped straight from John Barry- but with a bit more reverb n a bit more rock n roll. Johnny Marr is quaking in his boots.  But if you fancy summat a bit more down n dirty, check out "Death Kink", which sounds exactly how you’d imagine it to sound. A proper gritty post punk popper which acts as the devil on an album of dreamy angelic anthems, like the soft “Sundowner” and mesmerising “Motorcycle Boy”. Ok, so they’re not on the same level as Boards Of Canada or Cocteau Twins where you feel like you’ve consumed some crazy class A drugs and your soul has left your body, but my god this’ll be a great album for those cold dark evenings that will soon come. Stick on yer fairy lights and bring out the Fontaines, they’re well n truly fab x