Dopamine Chamber: a review into the new music of Fontaines D.C.
Following the release of their globally heralded fourth album and subsequent tour, Romance, the Irish quintet had a lot riding on their next batch of music. Fans had been eager to hear more of the sun-soaked dystopia that Fontaines had crafted on their last album, a combination of both warm electronic music and the post-punk sound that they had been developing since their early days of bopping around Dublin city. When lead single “Marianne” dropped in mid-August, I think many fans perceived it as a slap to the face.
My first impression of this album is how cold it feels. Long gone are the blisteringly hot twin guitars of Carlos O’Connell and Conor Curley; they ditch the six strings for a board and an electronic drum machine, creating an atmosphere of unease and existential dread in many places: a synthetic key “Marianne”, “Mimesis”. In a way, Romance and Dopamine Chamber are two sides of the same coin on the topic of dystopian futures. Where Romance focuses on the thematics of love and finding human connection, Dopamine Chamber opts to focus on the negatives of living in a world that offers so much misery and uncertainty, suggesting that escape can only be achieved by “Dopamine chamber, just tryna kill the pain.” Think of it as the ice plunge that you take after a lengthy stay in the sauna. Sure, it may be overwhelming and a real shock to the senses. But it offers a sense of refreshment and clarity once the effects begin to take hold.
The five lads really bring their A-game when it comes to the overall instrumentation of Dopamine Chamber. Recorded in Suffolk, as opposed to the vocals of Grian Chatten (makeshift home studio in Palermo, Italy), they all complement each other very well in the various soundscapes that are evoked. Every individual piece can be heard, but together they mesh so effectively in "Tongue". However, I often find that Chatten's vocals overpower the instruments with their overproduction and various effects labelled on (reverb, etc.) This can be extremely distracting, as in "Intimate".
The highlight of this album is the second-to-last song, "Japan", which offers a glimpse into a one-sided situationship, but in such a beautiful process. It is one of the rare songs on this LP where the instruments sound comforting, but the subject matter does not share those qualities. This juxtaposition creates a nice duality and a deeper overall message for the album; artwork can be both inspiring and devastating at the same time.
Overall, Fontaines have crafted an album that is entirely different from the youthful, brash romp that brought them to acclaim seven years ago. As expected, this is a conflict for the loyal fans that have been there from Ground Zero. However, like Radiohead and their electronic-centric masterpiece Kid A in 2000, I don't see Dopamine Chamber as a middle finger to the music that brought them here today, but rather a letter from a band that is maturing and finding new ways to break ground through their releases. Have they been able to pull this change off? I would argue that they have to an extent.
Overall consensus: 7.1/10