Fontaines D.C. feel nothing on ‘In the Modern World’, the final single from ‘Romance’
Five years ago, Fontaines D.C. felt everything. On their debut album, their hands were full of youthful passion as they defiantly declared Dublin their own and made plans to become big. It was a record full of fervour, anger and promise hastily stuffed into frantic guitars, into Grian Chatten’s impassioned vocals, and even into the frenzied single roll-out. Now, half a decade on, they feel nothing.
Fontaines’ sound and style have changed markedly since Dogrel first captured the hearts of Speedy Wunderground devotees back in 2019. The Irish rockers honed their take on guitar music with their sophomore record, A Hero’s Death, a year later before taking off in a new direction for their third full-length offering, Skinty Fia. Gloomy and gothic, the record cemented their place as one of the most exciting guitar bands around, though their grasp on Ireland as an influence could be felt slipping away to London living.
Now, Fontaines D.C. are on the eve of their fourth record, Romance, and they’re the furthest they’ve ever been from Ireland. Their outfits are more Slam Dunk than Skinty Fia, and they’re learning that cities, on return, are often strange. Consequently, they’re looking for romance in trip-hop influences and neon hair dye and places other than Ireland, but Los Angeles has proven devoid of it.
‘In the Modern World’, the final single before the release of Romance, lacks the plucky, punk ferocity of Fontaines’ earlier work. Shrugged strums and evocative strings provide a backdrop for Chatten, whose delivery is far more drawn out and dejected than anywhere on Dogrel. “I feel alive in the city that you like,” he declares at the outset of the song, but it’s difficult to believe him.
The verses to ‘In the Modern World’ are almost comparable to the title track from ‘A Hero’s Death’, a song so optimistic and so repetitive that it’s difficult to deduce its sincerity levels. But Fontaines’ more playful lyrical style is long gone on this new single, and rather than seeming ironic, Chatten’s declarations of happiness seem feigned and forced.
There is some sincerity in the central relationship; in the freedom, Chatten finds walking beside his lovers and kissing on the corner, but there is still no feeling. Chatten doesn’t really feel alive in the city or in the modern world. In fact, he feels nothing. “In the modern world, in the modern world,” he repeats in the chorus, “I don’t feel anything in the modern world, and I don’t feel bad.”
It’s a nihilistic take on modern living, on how capitalism and consumption suck out all feeling — even the bad ones. The new single was penned in Los Angeles and borrows from the stylings of Lana Del Rey, two influences that couldn’t seem much further from the places and people that first influenced Fontaines on Dogrel. It makes sense, then, that ‘In the Modern World’ acts as a distillation of their changing sound and perfectly sets us up for the release of Romance.
Fontaines’ sound, lyrically and musically, was once entirely driven by feeling. Now, we find Chatten proclaiming to feel nothing, beaten down by modern living, disillusioned and dejected. The passion finally pulled from the youth’s ungrateful hands.
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