FONTAINES D.C. - Dopamine Chamber

A few random haters, right before the pandemic, had prematurely predicted that Fontaines D.C. wouldn't last until Christmas, adding that five or six years after the release of “Dogrel” few would remember them. But most of those who heard the Dublin quintet's debut in real time immediately grasped the enormous scope of those songs, and realized they had an instant classic on their hands, one of those records destined to endure. The same thing happened with the follow-up, “A Hero's Death”, and again with “Skinty Fia”, marked by growing success driven by a couple of highly radio-friendly singles, “Roman Holiday” and “Jackie Down The Line”.
The venues hosting their shows kept growing by the day, even more so when the fluo-rave aesthetic of “Romance” sealed their crossover to a wider audience, though some early fans were ready to turn up their noses at it. So what should we expect from the next step of these once-cocky dubliners with a thing for literature? From the standard-bearers of European post-post-punk? Would Grian Chatten and co. opt for a return to their roots, or for a further 'pop-ification' of their sound?

“Dopamine Chamber” manages to do both pretty well: the 2026 vintage of Fontaines D.C. seduces the listener with catchy songwriting (keep an ear out for “Japan”), but between one stadium anthem and the next (a song like “Marianne” will work great live), elements creep in that worm their way under your skin in a diabolical fashion: dark synths, introspective scenarios, reflections on death. “Dopamine Chamber” thus strikes a tricky balance between a 'gloomy' sound derived from post-punk and the colour needed to light up the big arenas. But the key point, given the enormous hype generated these days, is trying to explain what Fontaines D.C. are NOT today, and what “Dopamine Chamber” is NOT.
For starters, don't be fooled by anyone telling you this is an absolute masterpiece, trying to sell you “Dopamine” as one of their best records, or pointing out the influences of Joy Division, Cure and Depeche Mode. Sure, listening to a song like “Mimesis”, well, a comparison with Martin Gore's songwriting makes perfect sense, but Fontaines today sound, above all, like themselves. Comparisons with the sacred monsters of the past make sense at the start of a band's journey, when you need reference points to pigeonhole, decode and explain a new phenomenon. By their fifth album, Fontaines D.C. have developed a sound of their own, becoming themselves a benchmark for plenty of other bands following in their wake trying to replicate their feats — one of the most recent cases being their fellow Dubliners Gurriers.

Secondly, don't let yourself be convinced by those praising the splendour of the duet with Rosalía, which actually represents a wasted opportunity: you can't land Rosalía's availability and then have her perform a song in which the Catalan superstar sounds like just any decent singer. No, Rosalía is much more than that — if you've got Rosalía, you need to make the most of her ispanic womanhood, her sensuality, her ability to overwhelm, and above all her voice. Rosalía should have coloured the harmless, decorative “Where Is Gone?” with an intensity never heard before in the Fontaines D.C. songbook; instead she ends up completely swallowed up by it: if you've got Rosalía on the team, you can't settle for making 'just' a decent song.
The greatness of “Dopamine Chamber”, if anything, lies elsewhere — for instance in the unfolding of “Happy For You”, enriched by bursts that prove the guitars are still very much present in the Irish quintet's songwriting, breaking up a run of three tracks (the album's first three, undeniably well done) dominated by synths. The guitars haven't disappeared: we find them too in the forceful closing solo of the second single, “Tongue” (the rhythm recalls Bjork's “Army Of Me”, or am I mistaken?), and in the guitar song “Demolition”, the sharpest moment on the record, even if light years away from the truly razor-edged blades of “Hurricane Laughter”, a track that really could shake things to their foundations.

“Dopamine Chamber” is a good record (though not on the level of the band's first three chapters), but one can't help wondering what happened to the bohemian lads from Dublin who used to spit bile, street poetry and post-punk urgency onto the pavement of “Dogrel”. A bitter question, but by now an inevitable one, for a discography that, already with the previous, glossy “Romance”, seemed to have taken the shortcut of expressive simplification. Produced with impeccable, detached mastery by James Ford, “Dopamine Chamber” softens the band's rough edges and neuroses in favour of an overdose of synthesizers and guitar arpeggios, which doesn't always work. The opening “Six Shot Morning”, for instance, does start off with the right attitude, with an atmosphere that hurls us back into the Eighties, but it only takes a few passages before the track flattens out into a circular structure devoid of real pathos.

In short, Fontaines D.C. put together a (good) clean, polished record, perfectly packaged for the big international festivals, but somewhat lacking in that raw soul and desperate urgency that made them one of the most important rock bands of their generation. A venial sin? Perhaps. But watch out: the risk of slipping into ordinariness isn't so far off, even for one of the very few truly essential musical acts of this decade.

Ride the wave of great music

Add OndaRock to your favorite sources on Google Discover. Don't miss our reviews, milestones and latest news straight in your feed.

Follow on Google

18/10/2026