Fontaines D.C. were damned whatever direction they took for Dopamine Chamber. The Grian Chatten-fronted group tapped into a mood and intensity on Romance that is, as Sam Fender found with Seventeen Going Under and Charli XCX with brat, impossible to improve on. A lot of that is out of Fontaines D.C.’s hands. Public reception and conversation reign supreme, and all three of those mentioned artists have released albums since then that haven’t tapped into the same sweet spot. Nobody can do that intentionally. Dopamine Chamber, as Music, Fashion, Film and People Watching, is fine work that was inevitably set to be compared to a preceding, perfect storm album. Time will be kind to all three of those albums, but particularly Dopamine Chamber, an album that actively seeks a new direction for Fontaines D.C. during a time when the group could’ve sunk into their Romance sound. We should be thankful they didn’t, and in time, audiences will warm to Dopamine Chamber, just not in the same way they did to Romance.
Fear of change is what will alienate many from this Fontaines D.C. latest. Scary it may be to hear the evolution; it’s taken place and listeners will need to get comfy with it. You can’t sit on past merit. You must keep pushing, and that’s what Dopamine Chamber is all about. It’s not better than Romance, but it is different. Exciting, too. A real thrill-ride from start to finish with a few colourful highs that represent the band at their very best. Opening song Six Shot Morning is a triumph. There’ll be some asking where the standout is, as Starburster was for Romance. But that defeats the purpose of Dopamine Chamber, where the overlap from song to song in both mood and theme is far more important than having a standout moment. If there were to be one, though, it’d be Six Shot Morning. Those rallying cries against the overwhelming and melancholic feeling that hasn’t appeared in the music of today but the listeners. We’re all susceptible to it, and Dopamine Chamber does well to pierce that feeling, this languid experience the world over.
Chatten and the band never feel as though they’re putting together a rallying cry against the mood of the times but those post-punk influences, the darkwave aesthetic that you can hear in the instrumental spills of lead single Marianne, is crucial to this next step from the band. Fontaines D.C. linger on that collective, underwhelmed feeling a little too much though. The undoing of Dopamine Chamber comes from the consistency of writing about indifference. It’s still great to hear the band adapting that as a message, but they hit the limit of what they can offer on that message with Mimesis. They change tact somewhat on Happy for You, a song in direct contrast with the pleasantries of the title. It’s hard to be happy for someone when the hurt they’ve caused still lingers, and even then, why bother being happy for the wrong person? Some crushing guitar work seals the message of Happy for You, perhaps the best indicator from Dopamine Chamber of where the band’s sound is headed.
At times miraculous, other points feel misguided or a step too far away from the fundamentals to the band’s sound, choices that have featured since Dogrel. But any artist worth listening to will challenge their sound and seek out a refreshed instrumental structure. Fontaines D.C. are pulling wildly from new pools of influence on Dopamine Chamber. It’s a little lopsided, with songs like Tongue falling flat because of Chatten’s lesser lyrical developments. But those string sections and heavier percussion pulls it together. At times the instrumental brevity is patched up by some skilled lyrical choices from Chatten, like with the anguish and heartbreak heard on One Man. It may be one of their best songs, in the fullness of time that conversation is worth having. There’s a push and a pull here that shows the band aren’t scared of taking huge risks, and as a result they put out some of their most interesting work to date. All over the place is the sound Fontaines D.C. go for here, and it works.
Fontaines D.C. show throughout Dopamine Chamber they’re not scared of a few bold choices. They’ve disrupted their own momentum in the eyes of people who were late to the party on Romance. Where Is Gone?, the Roaliá-featuring song towards the end of Dopamine Chamber, is one of the very best songs the band has put out. That and One Man is a gut-punch that Romance never came close to delivering. There’s an anthemic pride in their preceding album that has given the band a whole new life, but Dopamine Chamber proves Chatten and the band has an ear for the thematic thrills that only the best artists can offer. There’s a little of Chatten’s solo work, Chaos for the Fly, to be found in the final moments of Dopamine Chamber. A little clunky in parts, but that cry for guitar rock and the allure of being the next big thing is a mantle Fontaines D.C. had already picked up, and they progress it carefully across Dopamine Chamber. Their most cohesive album to date, but not their best.
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