FONTAINES D.C. Release New Single 'Favourite'
Fontaines D.C. have unveiled 'Favourite', the second single from their highly anticipated fourth album ROMANCE - out August 23rd via XL Recordings.
'Favourite', the new album’s gorgeous finalé, soars as a shimmering, clear-eyed love song replete with harmonies, jangling guitars, and heartfelt, ardent lyrics. It’s a song the band’s Grian Chatten describes as having “this never-ending sound to it, a continuous cycle from euphoria to sadness, two worlds spinning forever” and is destined to be a firm fan favourite following its debut outing at the band’s sold out Brooklyn Warsaw show in April. In addition, the band will perform the song live on Later With Jools Holland this Saturday 22nd June.
The accompanying 'Favourite' music video, self-directed by the band themselves, documents a recent trip to Madrid. It’s a city Fontaines D.C. have multiple personal connections to, as the place guitarist Carlos O’Connell was born and grew up in and the city he band used as a base for their first ever tour. Cut with childhood footage of the five band members, it’s an intimate, feel good portrait of a group on the verge of their next stratospheric leap.
Speaking about the video, Fontaines D.C.’s b says: “This video is a reminiscing of the past- of each other’s childhoods we didn’t know. To see people we know on an intimate level as adults in the tender ages of childhood, we explore where we came from, and who on some level, still are. I see a lot of familiar faces being pulled, and the antics these lads are undertaking in their videos are so disarming and vulnerable to see. I am at times reminded of boyish mannerisms that they’ve grown out of in the time I’ve known them - and some that they haven’t. I feel their souls there. I would like this video to serve as a way of honouring our friendships, and moving from that, the relationships we hold dear. Our mothers, fathers, siblings, aunties and uncles, grandmothers and grandfathers. Those who we still have, and those we have sadly lost. We haven’t lost that connection to each other, and are not afraid to come of age again, holding on to romance in a sometimes trying world.”
Fontaines D.C. released the bombastic first track from the new album, 'Starburster' to international acclaim in April, with the song already declared "the best of 2024 so far" by Rolling Stone and Consequence, and performed it live for the very first time on The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon.
ROMANCE is Fontaines D.C.s most ambitious, expansive record yet, its 11 tracks constellating ideas that have been percolating among Grian Chatten (vocals), Carlos O’Connell (guitar), Conor Curley (guitar), Conor Deegan (bass), and Tom Coll (drums) since they released Skinty Fia in 2022. The sonic evolution of the band, who bared their teeth in early records with antagonistic punk sensibilities, is an ascent into grungier breaks, dystopian electronica, hip-hop percussion, and dreamy Slowdive-esque textures that may surprise fans. The shoegaze touch points first pressed on Skinty Fia unfold on ROMANCE like a purpling bruise. But any “retro aesthetic”, as Chatten describes it, is left behind.
Reflecting on the impending release, Chatten says, “We say things on this record we’ve wanted to say for a long time. I never feel like it's over, but it’s nice to feel lighter."