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Romance is the fourth studio album by Irish rock band Fontaines D.C. Announced on 17 April 2024 along with the lead single, "Starburster", it was released on 23 August 2024. It also features the singles "Favourite", "Here's the Thing", "In the Modern World" and "Bug". It is their first release on XL Recordings, after the band left Partisan Records, and was produced by James Ford. The album received acclaim from critics. In the United Kingdom, it sold more than double the first-week total of its number-one predecessor Skinty Fia. It debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart behind Sabrina Carpenter's Short n' Sweet. Romance received two nominations at the 67th Annual Grammy Awards: Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance (for "Starburster").
Fantastic and diverse album by Fontaines D.C. After the 2023 solo album of lead singer, the band also leaves the path of straight post-punk. The music is more approachable and polished. All kinds of rock styles, slow songs and electronics and it all fits. An instant classic!
This was not like I expected from Ireland, and I loved it.
The Fontaines have been one of my favorite modern rock bands. On Romance they managed to come out with their most enjoyable and mainstream album. This one they tone down some of their Irish tones and ramp up the rock melodies. Overall I think this is a great album even with how recent it was released. I’ve listened to it many times over and this band is one of Irelands best. 8.2/10
Even tho fontaines has an online reputation of “bruv music” because of favorite going viral on tik tok, i was surprised by how varied this album is. It wasn’t just their normal Irish stuff but heavier and more melodic rock and electronic sounding.
I really liked the other album by this group that was added to the list. Not sure I liked this one quite as much but it was still very good. Will listen again. 4 stars.
Really surprised by this group when they "burst" into the US in 2024. Really dug this. Cool stuff.
Love this band but 'Skinty Fia' would've been the better choice for the list – now that this most recent effort has been out for a better part of a year, it stands starkly beneath its predecessor's shadow to me. Don't get me wrong, tracks like 'Starbuster' and 'Here's The Thing' are still on my heavy rotation and promise a continually bright future for Fontaines as they push their songwriting, this LP as a whole just feels like a jumbled bag of tracks without a stylistic or thematic thread to hold on to. Comparing this with Skinty's thrumming undercurrent of darkness that made the parts feel greater than the whole, I had high hopes for 'Romance' that I just don't think it lives up to. The album does get points, however, for having some of the most creative and exciting songwriting in the band's oeuvre to date, and still ended up relatively high on my Best of 2024 list. I'm probably being mildly harsh here given Skinty is my current pick for album of the decade, and I'm still excited to see what Grian and company have in store on the next one.
4 I mean Its alright 3
I liked this passably well, it was musically solid and lyrically interesting. The near uniform "low and slow" tone throughout needed moving around more I thought.
Never heard this band but the name is familiar, and I know they're popular with all the kids atm. They're not as awful as I've come to expect from their generation, so that's cool. I was expecting some kind of typical gen-Z gender bending, half-rock, half-electro nonsense with lyrics about mental illness or whatever. But thankfully, it was just mildly boring bog pop rock. 2020s Coldplay. 3/5.
A little dreamy, a little morose, I thought maybe the spiritual heirs of The Smiths.
Ok really? Two Fontaines albums in almost a week and this one came out last year?