Fontaines D.C.‘s ‘Marianne’ sets a bold new cinematic scene in their search for escape

“This year, you should come and stay here ,” invites Fontaines D.C. ’s Grian Chatten , somewhere between conviction and a deep sigh.

“Y ou can follow my lead, I can help you disappear”.

It’s a sense of escapism and a “ cinematic feeling ”, as the frontman puts it, that drives this first taster of the band’s freshly-announced upcoming James Ford -produced fifth album, ‘ Dopamine Chamber’ .

READ MORE: At home with Fontaines D.C.’s Grian Chatten: “Our personality is bigger than the sound that we make” It’s been two years since the neon cyber punk rush of ‘ Romance ’, where Fontaines boldly shrugged off any ‘indie’ preconceptions and other identity baggage to create a world of their own.

“Our albums have always questioned a sense of place,” says bassist Conor ‘Deego’ Deegan in a press statement.

“First Dublin, then being away from Dublin, and then trying to find the romance elsewhere.

On this record, the question became: where do you escape to?” Who knows where we’re going but the getting there sounds pretty epic.

For Chatten, he drifted around the “faded grandeur” of Venice, Vienna and Sicily in search of lyrical inspiration.

Less a grand tour and more a road to hell, the journey led to a record that shuns hope to “reflect the ugliness honestly” of where we’re at to present us with “a catastrophic warning”.

This particular postcard, one of two newbies recently debuted live alongside the shadowy menace of ‘Six Shot Morning ’, comes from a destination of tension piercing a surreal dream, a dark lullaby where the elegiac synth majesty of Depeche Mode meets a widescreen David Lynch scene of lush strings.

The sense of place is well-earned, and the longing is ultra real.

While ‘Starburster ‘ was a sharp shock and intake of breath, ‘Marianne’ is an opening scene set in opulent colour and dizzying sound.

With a Reading & Leeds headline set around the corner and online chatter of an impending arena and even stadium run, the most anticipated album of the year looks set to be the one to take Fontaines D.C. into the stratosphere.

We’ve heard the record and can confirm Chatten’s claim that the pendulum has swung more towards “automation, and a loss of feeling” than on ‘Romance’, pushing down firmly on the darkest part of the bruise.