Fontaines D.C.’s Dopamine Chamber - An Amalgamation of Sound or Musical Genius?

After 2 years or 784 days of waiting for the successor to the Irish bands award winning album ‘Romance’, which took the band to brand new heights, gaining worldwide traction and cementing the band as a headline for the rock scene of this decade, we finally have our answer for the next step in the bands musical trajectory, in their 5th studio album: ‘Dopamine Chamber.’

Coming off the trails of their success stepping into a more experimental side of their music, as seen with songs like ‘_Starburster_’ taking off when ‘Romance’ released, to the reception of the band’s new appearance in their unconventional clothing, hair and makeup, it was clear that the band was trying to take a step in a new, more diverse direction, and with the release of ‘Dopamine Chamber’, it is clear they have settled into disrupting the norm of what is expected from an Irish post punk band.

So, welcome to Deadly Demos first album review, with me Tom! I’ll be taking you track by track, letting you know my opinions and views on the tunes and album overall as we go along, let’s kick things off with the album’s opening act…

‘Six Shot Morning’ 4:56

Before I even pressed play, anyone who is familiar with the lads knows a Fontaines D.C. opening track is always a slammer, from ‘Big’ on ‘Dogrel’ to the title track on ‘Romance’, there is no cop out when it comes to getting an album started, and ‘Six Shot Morning’ is no exception to the rule.

The first thing that stood out to me is how acidic and trippy it felt, with a heavy emphasis on synths and the electronic feel of the song I had to check. I was listening to a Fontaines D.C. song and not a Massive Attack one, the elements of trip-hop felt evident to me, and that is something I never thought I would say about this band.

‘Six Shot Morning’ felt like more of a statement of intent to me than anything else, don’t get me wrong the heavy drums and the distorted guitar made it feel like a Fontaines song at its core, but to take that big a step out of the genre as an opener was bold, and i’m definitely here for it.

9/10

‘Marianne’ 3:46

‘Marianne’ was one of the singles that was released prior to the album’s release in August, and I had mixed feelings on it when I first heard it, I felt like it wasn’t strong enough of a song on its own to be released as the teaser to the album, it felt moody and lacked a bit of substance, it felt quite safe to me.

However, in relation to the album’s overall theme, my viewpoint was flipped. ‘Marianne’, as a song within a bigger picture of an album which utilises synths and bells to a considerable extent, works really well. The texture of this song feels like nothing like Fontaines D.C. have ever released, it feels quite cinematic (no pun intended) and dramatic in a way, especially in the chorus, like something you would see in a Thriller or a Drama, and the lyrics only further this:

“This year

You should come and stay here

You can follow my lead

I can help you disappear

Cinematic feeling

Understand this is your life

You can go on dreaming

You can go under the knife

Marianne.”

‘Marianne’ for me feeds into the theme this album is going into very well, and is not a bad song by any means, but do I think it’s their strongest song? I’m not so sure, but my viewpoint from before the album’s release still remains prominent.

7/10

‘Mimesis’ 3:51

‘Mimesis’ carries on this dark, synthy, dramatic theme we are all but accustomed to by now within this album, but it brings a kind of 80s pop feeling theme into the song which felt new to me, there were hints of Depeche Mode in there or something of that essence, my initial reaction is that I wouldn’t be shocked if I heard this song on Stranger Things!

But do I think this song works? Yes and No.

As mentioned, this song felt like it fits right in with the dark hopeless feeling this album carries, it’s not a sound which you would usually associate with Fontaines D.C, especially when weaving in the 80s pop effect it has, while I like the effect it has, giving a new sound to the band, ‘_Mimesis_’ for me felt quite slow and repetitive and not remotely catchy.

Overall, I love that the band is trying to go in new directions, but I don’t necessarily believe this is the right one.

6/10

‘Happy For You’ - 3:48

Enter the heavy guitar, this to me feels like a Fontaines D.C. song, the slow pacing of the song at the beginning, honing in on that guitars tune, immediately made me think of some of their past heavy hitters like “In The Modern World” from ‘Romance’, the sense of anticipation waiting for this explosive instrumental to erupt is what this album has lacked for me so far, and boy did ‘Happy For You’ make up for it.

The aspect of bringing a grungey, emotional theme to this album brings it into a new light for me, especially when this song erupts into its climax emphasising its shoegaze and punky esque roots creates a dramatic sensory feeling for the listeners, and this is the kind of instrumentation that I believe really favours the band.

Nearing the halfway point, the instrumentation on this album has felt nothing short of incredible, the implementation of so many different genres is fantastic, and while I believe some work is better than others as seen with the last two tunes, it just goes to show talented these lads are as musicians, would be fair to say they’re pretty good at their job.

But back to ‘_Happy For You’_, a grungey Fontaines is something I am definitely here for, excited to see them explore it more.

9/10

‘Demolition’ - 3:19

‘_Demolition_’ reverts back to this electronic kind of theme we heard in the opening tracks, it gives us distorted, ringing guitar loop to kick off the song, but thankfully this grungey aspect makes its return in ‘_Demolition_’, giving it the feel of a 90’s Nu-Metal kind of tune, especially when that chorus hits.

Anchoring the song’s title, ‘_Demolition_’ feels aggressive, like your being shouted at, rather than a melody being sung to you. As the song goes on, it feels like you’re being bombarded by a wall of sound with the instruments and guitar becoming increasingly more distorted and pixelated as the song went on. The instrumentation in ’_Demolition_’ gives the feeling of an emotional, shouty breakup that we as the listener are involved in, and this is only furthered by the lyrics.

“Cosy up to my horror show for the

Callous-hearted, the pre-departed, my

Soul so sick with the need for yours.”

‘_Demolition_’ is an incredible song, which really fits into this hopeless, depressing theme ‘_Dopamine Chamber_’ embodies, it feels like frustration bottled up in a song that the listener feels involved in, one of their best.

9/10

‘Tongue’ 3:13

‘_Tongue_’ carries over this feeling of a toxic relationship or a breakup, with: “More abuse than an Adderall.” being key in the bridge of the song. The instrumentation wants again anchors this, it feels like it’s getting more aggressive as we progress through the album, the drumming gets heavier as the guitars and importantly Grian’s singing get more distorted.

What this song does really well is the contrast in the instrumentation from the start to the finish, as the bridge concludes we fade into a piano solo with some slow atmospheric drumming eventually building into an orchestral finale that’s frankly all over the place, but in a good way. There is a brief crossover of this solid electronic exterior of the album, being paired with beautifully orchestrated strings which gives the song a feeling of madness and distress, and can only be paired with the feeling of intensity.

I’ve seen this song described as strange, unsettling and weird, with a bit too much going on, and I’m afraid I have no new direction on that, it’s a song which feels mad and is designed to make you say: “What the f**k is going on.”

7/10

‘One Man’ 4:58

The madness and distortion of ‘_Tongue_’ completely juxtaposes the feeling of ‘_One Man_’ as a song, this song feels like a sense of relief, like the madness of ‘_Tongue_’ is far in the past, and were taking a more mellow, chilled out step into something new.

‘_One Man_’ is a rant, but a peaceful one, the instrumentation only furthers this, the folky strings at the beginning in the absence of a guitar or drums separate this from being a ‘rock’ song, and when these do kick in, they are far from heavy. It’s the most mellow this album has felt, and to me this song is beautiful, it’s an absolute moment of silence and peace in an album that is full of madness and distress.

This is my song of the album, the lyrics, the instrumentation, the build-up and the calmness of it are fantastic, I have no notes.

9.5/10

‘Where Is Gone?’ Ft. ROSALIA 5:16

The album’s new step into calmness and tranquility is carried over into ‘_Where Is Gone_?’ as Grian and ROSALIA go back and forth in an old school kind of love song, singing to each other with folky strings and very slow drums, somewhat reminiscent of a Fleetwood Mac song to me, which is obviously a huge compliment.

The harmonisation on this song is beautiful between the two, and ROSALIA was a great first pick to be one of the bands first collaborators, I could definitely hear this song being played at a wedding, it’s a great love song, but I don’t believe it does anything particularly radical, it is a very stereotypical love song, and it’s not trying to be anything else, which is great and it definitely has its place within the album.

Also the track name makes no sense and I’m dyslexic, you can’t fool me that easily.

7/10

‘You Miss Me’ 3:35

The fractured essence of this song that the instrumentation creates separates it musically from many other songs on this album, to go from a gothic guitar ripple which has horror connotations to a hopeful violin is something that cannot be achieved easily, and effectively captures the ups and downs of an abusive relationship that this album is describing.

This song shows that this album is not afraid to be both beautiful and ugly at the same time. Upon my first listen I felt this album lacked in the way it faded between songs, and now after countless listens I could not be further from the truth, it is telling a story through instrumentation, and that is brilliant. ‘You Miss Me’ is an incredible song that does not shy away from the themes this album is embodying.

8.5/10

‘Japan’ 3:14

‘_Japan_’ is the ‘_Favourite_’ of ‘_Dopamine Chamber_’ if you want to put it that way, it’s catchy, it’s relatable, it describes a shitty partner, what’s not to love, I could easily see this shoot up the charts, let’s look at the chorus:

“Well, you know she is the mime, got a boyfriend in Japan

And he’s better than his word or, at least, that’s what I heard

When they fuck, she leaves her body for a while

And she pays for all his shit ’til he says thanks without a smile”

The folky guitar on this song is lovely and the harmonising by Grian and Deego is beautiful, I love the musical direction this album has headed in, while this song is not musically revolutionary, it doesn’t need to be, the lyrics, tune of the song perfectly encapsulate the theme of the album, without needing to cross genres to do so, ‘Japan’ is just put simply a great song.

8/10

‘Intimate’ 3:57

‘_Intimate_’ reverts back to this electronic moody theme we were accustomed to at the start of the album, but turns it into a shouty, depressing amalgamation of sound.

The musical direction of this song feels quite cyberpunk-esque, with the clattering drums and a droning, constant synthesizer to end the album as Grian chants over this song in what feels like a chant, sharing his views on connections in the modern world. (Again, no pun intended)

This song for me is the weakest on the album, that doesn’t necessarily make it bad, it just felt quite abrupt to me, and lacked substance despite its political nature, I just thought the album would end on a stronger note.

6/10

What do I reckon?

‘Dopamine Chamber’ is without a doubt a very strong album front to back, it’s evident with the musical direction they took within the album, they are not scared to try new things musically, and expand their discography, this is an album full of frustration and heartbreak which came across very well, while I thought the structure of the album initially lacked, the all over the place nature of the album perfectly described the story this album is trying to tell, and definitely worked in their favour.

The only weakness of this album is I think some songs in it would lack substance if you separated them from the main body, but that won’t do lasting damage to it. Overall ‘Dopamine Chamber’ isn’t my favourite Fontaines D.C. album, but it certainly isn’t weak by any means, I can’t wait to see the direction they head in next!

8/10

Massive Thanks for reading my first article, this is the first time I’ve ever written something like this so I’ll take any feedback I can get.

Stay tuned in to our socials from future articles from all 3 of us!

DD X