Comes on limited edition turquoise blue vinyl LP + 7″ single of ‘It’s Amazing To Be Young’ and ‘Before You I Just Forget’..
On Romance, Fontaines D.C. cast off the dirt-under-the-nails post-punk swagger of their early days and stepped into something bigger, grittier, and undeniably cinematic. With James Ford (of Arctic Monkeys and Blur fame) at the controls, Romance feels like a soundtrack to a dusk-to-dawn odyssey — equal parts bruised poetry, widescreen drama, and bruising riffs — one that splashes love, despair, and apocalypse all over the same canvas.
From the opening thrust of “Romance” — a brooding proclamation that feels like a prologue to a novel never meant to have a happy ending — to the spiraling collage of textures in “Starburster,” Fontaines D.C. make it clear they’re no longer content to lurk in corners. The explosive lead single, a rare radio-worthy juggernaut for the band, crashes together trip-hop rigidity and jagged punk energy, underscored by the grapevine of existential urgency that runs through every line.
Elsewhere, Romance walks the tightrope between euphoric tension and lyrical unease. “Here’s The Thing” balances distorted guitar spirals with rumbling percussion that feels like a heartbeat, while “Desire” and “In The Modern World” slither through mood swings that evoke both glam noir and urban dread. The nimble swagger of “Bug” and the hazy romance of “Sundowner” tease shoegaze and jangle-pop edges, testifying that love on this record is as tangled as the noise around it.
