Partisan Records release Fontaines D.C. new LP, A Hero's Death. This marks a new, invigorated band from that heard on their debut album, Dogrel (2019). The title track and lead single of this new project was written, on some level, in direct response to the isolation they felt after their newfound fame on the back of Dogrel...

Fontaines D.C.'s A Hero's Death is something altogether darker and more impressionistic than Dogrel. This new project finds a band grappling with isolation and disorientation by crafting music that is more introspective, looking inwards and trying to make sense of their experiences as their sense of reality melted further out of the frame.

Citing influences from Suicide and Beach Boys and Leonard Cohen to everyone including Beach House, Broadcast, and Lee Hazlewood, the band carved out a more atmospheric, somber sound for themselves. The new sound also bring a newfound confidence and identity.

It's not so radically different as to turn away their legions of fans, its more that they are growing and maturing and taking their fans with them on their new direction. A good, solid album which builds wonderfully on what has come before.

7

Nick Smithson