Fontaines DC, Dopamine Chamber
★★★★
Just two years ago, Fontaines DC’s arena-rock pivot Romance turned them into the prevailing band for middle-aged dads eager to prove they listen to new music. The Irish rockers, once the snarling soldiers of Dublin city, expanded their frantic guitar-attack with synthy atmospherics, Smashing Pumpkins-style orchestration and stadium-ready pomp.
If that outlined their heady ambition, then Dopamine Chamber completes the band’s journey from the streets of Dublin to outer space. Opener Six Shot Morning, with its motorik propulsion, ping-ponging lasers and frontman Grian Chatten’s Ian Curtis-esque bark now a calm baritone croon (ever vague, his lyrical snatches lament Silicon Valley, environmental collapse and the folly of resistance), envelops us in the inevitability of cosmic doom.
Apparently inspired by the Epstein files and subsequent protests in London, the band’s members have taken to turning up to interviews with dog-eared copies of Brave New World in their coat pockets. Such precious self-seriousness could leave early fans wondering if the DC now stands for “Doing Coldplay”, if not for the fact their songs are still underpinned by their nervy post-punk. On highlights Mimesis, Happy For You and single Marianne, chiming guitars and synth melodies pluck their way from the expansive, reverb-drenched haze.
And then there’s the fairly remarkable centrepiece Where Is Gone?, a swooning duet with Spanish icon Rosalia that plays like Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra reunited at the end of the world, complete with timpani rolls, swelling strings, Western guitars and a stirring melody that’s been living in my head for a week. You’d imagine these guys could have a Bond theme in their future if they believed the future was even a plausible possibility. Robert Moran
Vacations, Pursuit of Anything
★★★
On their fourth album, Pursuit Of Anything, all-conquering Newcastle band Vacations sound more settled than ever. That’s despite the backdrop of the album’s creation, with various members settling down and/or relocating to various parts of the world. It’s enough to throw any group off their axis, but that’s not the case here.
The album finds lead singer Campbell Burns musing on getting older, with these thoughts pressed up against beds of warm, lush guitar-pop. Pursuit of Anything doesn’t demand anything of the listener except to absorb it. Songs such as Yesterday and I See Myself In You sound utterly effortless, with the band totally in sync.
It might be the biggest issue with the album. In asking almost nothing of the listener, Burns’ laconic vocal delivery risks masking his strong lyricism. On opening track Congratulations, he sings “Scared to death/As the world stands still/Time marches on/When you don’t have the will” – but rather than entering with a bang, the band winds up slowly, like awaking from a deep slumber.
Pursuit of Anything proves Vacations have mastered the art of swaying guitar-pop. However, at times, it all threatens to wash into itself. Ben Madden
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