Loaded Album of the Week
By Darren Croft
Fontaines D.C.: Dopamine Chamber ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Fontaines D.C. have never been a band for happy-clappy nonsense, and their fifth album, Dopamine Chamber, is another invitation into their dark, gritty world. This is the Dopamine Chamber that allows you to escape the world and all it throws at you.
Their fifth album pushes the band further into dark synth-pop, cinematic rock and brooding electronic soundscapes. Where Romance found beauty in surreal escapism, Dopamine Chamber examines the darker side of pleasure: obsession, digital distraction, emotional numbness and the emphatic need to cope in a world that feels increasingly broken and hurtful.
“Six Shot Morning” introduces the album's electronic menace, “Marianne” starts to warm things up nicely, and “Mimesis” turns it into something more immediately danceable. It’s got a touch of The Horrors about it. “Happy For You” carries the emotional weight of accepting a loss rather than pretending it doesn't hurt.
“Demolition” blurs the distinction between pleasure and harm, and “Tongue” breaks things up nicely in the middle, where the Fontaines go a little bit Animal Collective.
“One Man” gives Chatten room to sound vulnerable rather than merely mysterious, and the song connects directly to the album's central idea: the search for relief from pain can become its own prison.
Just when you thought things couldn’t get any grander, up pops Rosalía on “Where Is Gone?”. It's one of the clearest examples of the band's ability to make something gorgeous and deeply uncomfortable at once.
“You Miss Me” explores the peculiar power of absence in a very Cure-like manner. Then along comes “Japan”, which is one of the album's most delicate moments. Its bittersweet, acoustic-leaning arrangement floats rather than drives, creating a dreamlike atmosphere that feels worlds away from the rhythms of the opening tracks.
The closing track, “Intimate”, pretty much sums up the theme of the album by asking whether the things we use to escape our anxieties are actually making us feel more alive.
There’s a restless, wired feeling running through the album. Fontaines D.C. know how to make tension sound sexy, and when the music locks into that hypnotic groove, it’s hard not to get swept along.
Fontaines D.C. thrive in the shadows, finding beauty in the mess and melody in the misery.
And they’re more than happy to live in that world. Top marks.