Hi, everyone. Anthony Fontaine here, the internet's busiest music nerd. It's time for a review of this new Fontaines D.C. record, Romance.

Here we have the fourth full-length LP from Dublin natives, Fontaines D.C., one of the most praised and beloved bands to come out of the Irish rock underground in recent years. In just a few albums, too, the band made pretty quick work of becoming one of the most strong and respected acts on the post-punk circuit today.

Now, knowing my music taste, Fontaines D.C. are exactly the band that on paper I should be going crazy for. But sadly, I just have not been able to ride for them in the same way that a lot of their fans have. Even if I do hold a lot of love for the group's most obvious influences, Joy Division, The Fall, The Cure. I mean, they're a solid band, but I'm just usually left wanting more on multiple fronts whenever I listen to one of their albums from front to back, either from the general performances or the vocals or the songwriting, which I've often found to be one dimensional and redundant in the past.

But that was past releases, hopefully. This is the present where seemingly the band has switched things up on their new LP here in some interesting ways. I was taken with some of the teasers in the lead up to this record, too. Most notably,
"Starburster", which featured some bold beats and bolder vocals with some great contrast between the riffs that back up both the verses and the choruses. One of the band's catchiest hooks to date as well. Plus these insane gasp drops in between the riffs during that section.

I also love the track "Favorite", which serves as the closer for the album. And like usual with Fontaines, I wish that structurally this one switched things up a little bit more, brought more of a change on the hook or more of a bridge or something. But it's still a stellar little ditty packed with these very carefree, jangly rhythm guitars, some endearingly lovesick lyrics, too.

The whole track conjures this intense sense of bliss that I don't mind getting lost in. And believe it or not, this song is actually a pretty good forecast of where exactly the band is headed on this album because overall, Romance doesn't really feature much of anything you could categorize typically as post-punk music, as instead, the tracklist on this thing feels like an a la carte combo of various '90s rock trends with with touches of alt rock and grunge and the like.

The song "Here's the Thing", for example, features these wailing, heavy mid-paced riffs packed with harmonic touches, some great grooves, and sinister lead vocals as well. It's very Nirvana, it's very Smashing Pumpkins. I wish the ending wasn't as abrupt as it is, but still, it does feature one of the sickest rift and hook combines on the entire album.

Not too long after this first leg of the record, though, the band takes things into very moody and despondent territory, layering on the strings, slowing down the tempos and bringing some dour chord progressions, too. Like with the very lush "Desire", which does slowly grow into this massive wall of sound, but none of the melodies or lead vocals swimming in this wall really stick with me all that much.

There's also in the "Modern World", which is a very dramatic and slow moving anthem that a lot of fans seem to be taken with. The Smashing Pumpkins influence turns up once again, specifically something like from the Mellon Collie era. I would say there's some REM vibes on this track, too. And while I do think the hook works well enough, once again, I'm left wanting more from Fontaines D.C.'s song structure game, as I really do think the track could have used more contrast between the verses and choruses, maybe a bridge or something.

The energy picks up a bit on the track "Bug", which is an acoustic rock number where miraculously, I feel like we get some Oasis energy, but with more of a grim attitude, I suppose. But the pacing on the record starts to fall off once again with "Motorcycle Boy", where again, we are subjected to angsty Billy Corgan ballad vibes. But Fontaines D.C. fail to bring the melodic sensibilities or the dramatic payoff that would make listening to this thing worth it. Just because something is getting progressively louder doesn't mean it's getting progressively more interesting.

Even worse, the song "Sundowner" is a very dreamy piece of alt rock that not a whole lot translates through. The vocals and melodies get lost in the haze, and the textures that this wall of sound is built off of aren't really interesting enough want to get lost in, at least for me.

I feel mostly the same about "Horseness is the Whatness" as well, but the abrupt ending on this track leaves it feeling even more like a bridge to nowhere.

I do think things energy-wise pick up on the track "Death Kink", but I would be hyping it up a bit too much if I were to say I feel like it's one of the best written songs on the album.

So, sadly, once again, I'm just not as enthused about a Fontaines D.C. album as I would like to be. I do think the band has recorded and placed several of their best songs date on this record for sure. And them switching up successfully into a whole alt rock and '90s rock style was pretty impressive and certainly speaks on some level to the group's attention to aesthetic detail because they most definitely do this sound and era justice, at least when it comes to the sonics of their music.

But I still feel like they haven't boned up that much when it comes to their songwriting process. And what few good and positive of things I can pull out of this record... it doesn't really change the fact that I am more or less indifferent or nearly comatose over more than half the songs here, which is why I'm feeling a decent to strong five on this one.

Anthony Fantano. Fontaines D.C. Forever.