While waiting to release their new album, “Romance”, this summer, Fontaines DC have already started the American promotion of their fourth album, preceded by the single “Starburster”, which we already proposed to you a few days ago. Grian Chatten and his companions were guests of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where they performed “Starbuster” live. Watch the video of them below performance.
Fontaines DC will perform in Italy in June for two dates, the 23rd in Lido di Camaiore, in the province of Lucca, as part of the third edition of the La Prima Estate festival, and the 25th in Rome (as part of the Rock summer festival In Rome). “Romance” will be published on August 23rd. And the release will be followed by a “Romance European Tour 2024”, which will stop in Italy for a single date: November 4th, at Alcatraz in Milan. Wunderhouse will open the live show.
Produced by James Ford, “Starbuster” tells the story of Grian Chatten's experience of a panic attack at St. Pancras station in London. The enigmatic video clip, directed by Aube Perrie, stars the frontman of the Dublin band coming out of a house with a swollen face, with sounds based on loops And drum machines. Watch the video below.
Fontaines DC had anticipated the new project with a teaser, which showed a still image on an elevator identical to the one dripping blood in Kubrick's feature film; here, however, the waterfall is bright green like the graphic references of the next work. A few days ago, in fact, the social profiles of the Irish band were colored fluorescent green (after the black of “Dogrel”, the blue of “A Hero's Death” and the red of “Skinty Fia”) and in the short video on Instagram Grian Chatten appeared in neon green sweatpants, in a swollen version with stage make-up. The first part of the lyrics also appears in the clip, which the frontman sings in a sinister voice (“Into the darkness again/ In with the pigs in the pen/ God knows I love you/ Screws in my head/ I will be beside you till you 're dead”) before being interrupted by horrifying noises and sounds. The new album should also mark Fontaines DC's move from Partisan Records to XL Recordings.
The Dublin band, leader of the new post-punk renaissance and fresh from the success of their third album “Skinty Fia” (n.1 in the UK), has become one of the leading phenomena of international rock, with a hype enormous, at times even exaggerated, which we also questioned in this in-depth analysis. Passionate about literature, talented and inspired, the five bohemian Irish artists of the new post-punk have carved out a highly recognizable space for themselves in the space of just three albums. Centrifuging stylistic influences and focusing on texts rich in images, poetry and slogans, with the plus of a frontman as magnetic as Grian Chatten, who also made his solo debut in July 2023 with the album “Chaos For The Fly”.
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM