Fontaines DC have announced their fifth album, Dopamine Chamber, due for release via XL on 16 October. To mark the occasion, here is a countdown of their 20 greatest songs, from the frantic post-punk of their debut to the more expansive, pop-facing sound of recent years.
The Early Years: Dogrel and Punk Energy
20. It’s Amazing to Be Young (2025) – Inspired by the birth of bassist Conor Deegan’s daughter, this single is a lovely example of Fontaines DC operating in euphoric mode. Frontman Grian Chatten once offered: “Sometimes, optimism is a necessary delusion.”
17. Big (2019) – The opening track of their debut album Dogrel is a fierce, snotty, swaggering statement of intent. With lines like “Dublin in the rain is mine … I’m gonna be big,” it immediately lets listeners know they are in the presence of something special.
14. Hurricane Laughter (2019) – A pummelling early approach in miniature: a relentless, Krautrock-y riff, frantic post-punk guitars, and vocals that somehow manage to feel laconic and forceful at the same time.
Expanding Horizons: Romance and Beyond
9. Favourite (2024) – The closer from Romance is a glorious, sunlit guitar jangle that could have been an indie disco floor-filler at virtually any point in the last 40 years.
2. Starburster (2024) – The song that introduced Fontaines V2.0: a more striking image, more pop-facing music without sacrificing any of their agitated urgency. Its monstrous beat, orchestral samples and guitar twang vaguely resemble trip-hop retooled for a more fretful era, with Chatten’s vocal punctuated by panic-attack gasps.
11. Marianne (2026) – The first single from Dopamine Chamber, trailed as a bleaker counterpart to Romance. The slow-motion synth chug of the track – epic, possessed of a superb pop melody and faintly disquieting lyrically – did nothing to damp down the anticipation for the album.
The Masterpieces: Skinty Fia and Beyond
1. I Love You (2022) – The centrepiece of Skinty Fia starts with a cliched title and a gentle, faintly Cure-ish intro, but just keeps building, ratcheting up the tension through a lengthy kick-drum-driven interlude. Chatten’s lyrical open letter to Ireland gets more knotty and conflicted, his voice more fraught and antagonised: “This island’s run by sharks with children’s bones stuck in their jaws.” It’s five minutes of music that leaves the listener wrung out: dense, complex, emotive and crushing.
3. Jackie Down the Line (2022) – This relates the saga of an abusive relationship, told from the point of view of the unrepentant abuser, rendered all the more chilling by its infernally catchy melody.
7. A Hero’s Death (2020) – Amid the troubled album of the same name, this feels like a series of notes to self – “Don’t give up too quick / You only get one line, you better make it stick” – set to music that balances darkness with flickers of light.
The full ranked list runs from 20 to 1, with Dopamine Chamber released on 16 October.
