Fontaines D.C. – Starburster Review

Give us more chamber pop breaks you sick freaks. Fontaines D.C. is back. It feels as though they never left though for those old enough to remember, Skinty Fia was two years ago. It feels like longer than this as the band has not quite captured the spotlight as they did in the immediate afterglow of their third album. But with Romance around the corner and new single Starburst causing the boom once more, the band is very much back and at their best. It marks the continuation of group work for Griann Chatten too, whose Chaos For the Fly solo work was a masterful piece of last year. Here they are, back again for another dollop of gothic rock. A huge day for Mr. Bruv fans and the two dot champion himself.  

Starburster is nothing shy of fantastic. It lends itself to the principle of awful album covers holding some of the finest music in them. With Romance and its deflated, Silence of the Lambs-like heart on full display, Starburster is a percussion-heavy boom of intensity. A frankly breathless experience with how clear-cut Chatten comes across in this one as he rattles off the momentary bliss which forms our lives, the jangling guitar on the verge of chamber rock adding to this already frightening intensity. A break from the brutality comes toward the end of Starburster, shining a brief light on the momentary bliss Chatten is clawing for here. Utterly wonderful stuff overall – a shot in the dark which produces light for those listeners stuck at home, feeling their way through the discomfort and disgust of the real world.  

Therein lies the grand salvation Fontaines D.C. offers its listeners. Much can be said for the state of the world, so why not revert and rebel in equal measure – take yourself back to the calm of your mind and endure the blinding light. Starburster is a striking experience, a piece which holds the same intrigue and wonder in its introduction as Strawberry Fields Forever from The Beatles. A sense of security usurped in the opening seconds as a way of keeping a listener on their toes and questioning what is to follow. At its heart is the beating anxiety which we call life. Chatten is certainly nearing the top of the pile for contemporary songwriters – the wide berth of fascinating cultural observations and romantic offsets, seeing someone alone but wildly spiralling into mass, cash and the circle of apologies in education brings out the best of his Fontaines D.C. work so far.  

Those gasps between the repetition of momentary bliss are the sudden breaths we can take in the headaches of the day-to-day experience. Fontaines D.C. offers their listeners a hand out of the choppy waters, a moment to catch their breath before it sinks them again. That is the point of Romance. Those we love are given the breathing room to survive by the collateral of pain and hope and love. Fontaines D.C. has always been stunning in offering this and though Skinty Fia feels a world away, the band is back in fine form and Starburster does well to evolve the group forward, past their previous hits and into a new route of wild and potentially eventful future ruminations. It all comes together well on this first single.