Two years on from the release of Romance, Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C. are back with their fifth studio album Dopamine Chamber.
While many bands in today’s charts have a quiet rise to success, seemingly appearing from the cracks as fully formed plants in the industry, Fontaines have been making a noise since their formation in 2014. Within ten years the band went from selling out hometown pubs to stadiums across the UK and Ireland, and now performing to a global fanbase in the U.S., Australia and Asia.
It’s been a little over a year since the band last played in Glasgow headlining TRNSMT in July 2025, just months after an almost sold-out gig at the OVO Hydro during the Romance tour run, where the band returns in November. Coming a long way from the small venues the band started off in, such as King Tuts in 2019 and despite filling a 14,300-capacity, Glasgow’s biggest music venue, it’s clear the band has the ability to perform to bigger. Each venue they fill, it seems clear by the time the event comes around that they’ve already outgrown the space with success.
The band are set to tour Dopamine Chamber around the UK and Europe across the winter months before taking on Ireland, North America, Asia and a number of outdoor UK venues in 2027. Fontaines D.C. are also set to headline Primavera 2027 in Barcelona as well as a rumoured place in the Glastonbury lineup.
Released on October 16th, Dopamine Chamber reverts back to the old days, remnant of A Hero’s Death and Skinty Fia while maintaining the alt rock feel of Romance. The album, like Romance, is addictively bouncy, a slight air of new beginnings, perfectly entwined with an overwhelming sense of nostalgia, reminisce and holding onto the remaining pieces of what once was before it slips through the cracks for good.
However, unlike Romance which seems to be filled with certainty, each track is laced with a slight dark, ominous touch that despite how good the past has been, the future holds something different and uncertain.
In an official statement frontman Grian Chatten described the album saying: “The album itself is a dopamine chamber, you step inside and we test these different mind or mood-altering pieces of music on you.” He later continued, “I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.”
Despite the ‘catastrophic warning’ listeners can’t help but feel they’re having the time of their lives while being driven into the dark, certainly Mimesis with its dark lyrics but catchy backing beats. But maybe that’s the point? to still enjoy what we have even in the darkest of days.
The bold visuals are another piece of the Romance era that seems to have stuck with Fontaines D.C. for Dopamine Chamber, bringing bright colours, fish eye lens shots and statement fashion back into the music videos and photo shoots. Grian’s on stage style and presence has always been similar to the likes of Liam Gallagher, bopping around microphone stand in hand, adidas tracksuit and hands placed behind his back but in recent years the band have ventured outside that known comfort zone of their presence, styled in neon colours, tartan kilts and ‘crazy’ hairstyles.
Produced by English record producer and songwriter James Ford in rural Suffolk, Dopamine Chamber was written by frontman Grian Chatten while travelling Vienna and Venice on a writing trip. He told MOJO that this album was written in an “emotional response to things that are happening in the world”. The band have never been shy about making their views known, using their stage as a platform to speak about genocide in Palestine and global injustice, previously teaming up with activist Greta Thunberg and Irish rap trio Kneecap.
The timing of Fontaines D.C. ‘s album releases seems to be a special talent of theirs, not just in timing of world events but in perfectly fitting with the changing seasons. Dopamine Chamber encapsulates dark gloomy evenings, leaving the long summer days behind (or simply the observation of a crazed music fan who likes to coincide their re-listens with the album release times).
The third single released from the album and a particular stand out, Where Is Gone? Features the band’s first collaboration on a studio album, with Spanish artist ROSALÍA taking on a central role in the song.
Having made a successful career out of being individuals, filling a gap in an oversaturated market, collaborating with ROSALÍA in a first was a bold and risky move for Fontaines D.C. but one that paid off.
For a band with such bold vocals and unique writing style, it is a challenge for any artist to come in and leave their own mark, but it’s a challenge that never phases ROSALÍA, if anything she is their competition. ROSALÍA perfectly matches the song bringing almost angelic vocals to a longing for what once was, similar to her own latest project LUX and plays out like a sister track to the albums lead single Berghain.
In a press release the band’s guitarist Carlos O’Connell said: “I’ve been a fan of ROSALÍA since her debut album, which was absolutely beautiful. What really excited me was how she was keeping a Spanish tradition of music alive, which in a spiritual way felt akin to what we’ve tried to do with Irish music. For someone with roots in both countries, it’s been beautiful to see. She’s an artist who’s blown me away at every stage since.” O’Connell grew up in Madrid and was raised with a mixture of Irish and Spanish culture.
Paying homage to Ireland and Irish culture has always been one of Fontaines music’s founding principles, with past work written in the Irish language and in reference to the works of Irish author James Joyce. Taking lyrics away from the album and Dopamine Chamber could be mistaken for the work of Irish Shoegaze band My Bloody Valentine, particularly in the albums fourth track Happy For You.
There’s no harm in saying, “Leave it, let it die”
Where is Gone?, Fontaines D.C.
While not officially stated by the band, many fans have linked Dopamine Chamber’s lead single ‘Marianne’ to Irish author Sally Rooney’s Normal People, noting similarities in the lyrics to the book’s themes of love, loss and feelings of escapism.
One thing is clear with Dopamine Chamber and it’s the growth in the band’s songwriting abilities, while Dogrel and A Hero’s Death remain fan favourites, the strength in every lyric from Skinty Fia to Dopamine Chamber makes every song an exploration of emotions and a connection with the human experience.
The band’s growth in terms of fame has also skyrocketed, with recent releases drawing in younger and bigger crowds each tour. In 2022, the Corn Exchange in Edinburgh was filled with around 3,000 fans, the majority between 18 & 50 years old. By 2025 the 14,000 capacity crowd was overwhelmingly 18 and under. While younger crowds are often heavily criticised today for lack of gig etiquette there’s no such thing at a Fontaines D.C. gig, bouncing about causing chaos is just part of the act – particularly when it comes to Boys in the Better Land.
Following the break in-between Skinty Fia and Romance, Grian Chatten released his first and only solo album Chaos For the Fly in 2023, the album embraced Chatten’s acoustic side with a focus on intimate connection similar to The Couple Across the Way from Skinty Fia. The project was something almost entirely different in comparison to the hard-hitting tracks Fontaines had put out in their previous three albums.
And surely, you’ll wake up in yourself And know that you can’t blame nobody else
Mimesis, Fontaines D.C.
With another planned break coming up after the release of Dopamine Chamber and the upcoming tour dates, Grian Chatten told MOJO that “The best place we can go from here is away for a while. Take a bit of stock, and give people a break from us, maybe for a little while, after this one”. When asked if another solo album was on the cards, Chatten responded with: “I’ve got a few tunes, and I have a bit of an idea of how I want it to be. I would say it’d be a lot more lively and a bit more kind of festival-ready.” So while a break might seem bad news to die-hard Fontaines fans, there’s good news for fans eager for more solo Grian work.
Dopamine Chamber is available on all major streaming platforms and shops from 12am on October 16th.
Sophie is a fourth year journalism student and current Deputy Editor-in-Chief of ENRG. She particularly focuses on political writing for ENRG Debrief, while finding the time to stay involved in arts and culture.
Sophie is a fourth year journalism student and current Deputy Editor-in-Chief of ENRG. She particularly focuses on political writing for ENRG Debrief, while finding the time to stay involved in arts and culture.
