Review Summary: "Life ain't always empty."
When I reviewed
Skinty Fia, in the hazy rearview distance of 2022, my biggest takeaway was that the third album in four years by the constantly evolving Fontaines D.C. was one of minor masterpieces cut through with lesser songs. Time has sharpened this take, to the point where I consider it half a record of all-time classics ("I Love You", "Roman Holiday" and "Jackie Down the Line" chief among them) diluted by some conspicuous filler, a grim doom-laden atmosphere and absolutely plodding tempo. The deluxe version of
Skinty Fia wryly acknowledged some of these points with upbeat reinterpretations of the album's heavy hitters, most blessedly a rendition of "The Couple Across The Way" which dropped the dirgelike accordion vamp for something approaching genuine tunesmithery.
I suspect you can hear the nascent beginnings of what would eventually become
Romance in those lighter, breezier versions, because god knows the boys have finally gone and just made a lovely pop album. Oh, to get there we must look past the eyesore album art and the ridiculous combination of Reznoresque industrial grind and breathy sing-rapping that is "Starburster", one of the year's most insane singles which somehow comes out a winner by tapping into Grian Chatten's reservoir of cool. That's all misdirection, a sleight of hand to keep the knives-out audience from pigeonholing
Romance as the super-sweet pop album it clearly is, being otherwise more concerned with shimmering than snarling out one-liners, at its best when Fontaines embrace their rarely-heard penchant for rosy optimism.
You could slot crunchy indie-anthems "Here's the Thing" and "Bug" right next to Blur's "Song 2" on the playlist you listen to when people you're trying to impress aren't around, while closer "Favourite" throws recent tourmates Arctic Monkeys'
Suck It and See, Bloc Party's anthemic "I Still Remember" and about a billion more bildungsroman bops into a blender and comes up smelling like one of the band's effortless best songs to date. Guitarist Conor Curley takes lead vocals on the shoegazey "Sundowner" before handing the reins back for "Horseness Is The Whatness", a dreamy ballad that recalls an era of Smashing Pumpkins where noisy guitars and tranquility could go hand in hand. Even with a brief hint of Fontaines' previous inclination to overindulge in a soppy ballad with "Motorcycle Boy" and an undercooked Pixies tribute "Death Kink",
Romance is so light on its feet and brief in comparison to its predecessor that it's far too easy to take these missteps in stride. We're four years on from what I originally saw as the band's high watermark - Chatten declaring "life ain't always empty" like a man forcing himself to believe it, insistent on the promise of a better day yet to come - and Fontaines D.C. finally sound like they're in that better land, shedding their skins with an infectious grin and an even more infectious pack of choruses. Dare you to try and not smile along.
