How big are Fontaines D.C.?
As Storm Darragh barrelled towards the western shores of the UK and Ireland in December 2024, alerting mobile phones at deafening volume and inciting waves of panic amongst those reinforcing their fence panels, I stood blissfully unaware of its reality, for I was cocooned in the safety of a mosh-pit, battling against the sonic waves of another Irish storm. Somewhere in the depths of Dublin’s 3Arena, I stood, watching Fontaines D.C. play their most commercially successful album, Romance, to a fever pitch hometown crowd.
It was a vastly different show from the first one I attended during their Hero’s Death tour in 2021. Back then, they were dominant on stage and curious in the studio, of course, but not yet threatening Arctic Monkeys’ status as the world’s biggest band. They were poster boys for the alternative and torchbearers for the authentic. And in a world that has become increasingly misaligned with the latter, it was hard to picture their brilliance being consumed on such a stratospheric level.
But as they played to a packed out arena, the seismic shift in their cultural relevance had become apparent. With a setlist compiling 4 records and an identifiable creative direction backing their latest release, their Romance show felt like the eye of a cultural storm. A vacuum of fans disillusioned with the modern landscape of solo artists, TikTok soundtracks and shoddy lyricism united by the emergence of a band representing the more intellectual sensibilities that make us music fans.
“The songs are so confident, the production is bolder, but the lyrics and energy still have that danger,” said fellow Irishman Cillian Murphy when GQ asked him about the heightened levels of fame Romance thrust them into.
He continued: “I think a lot of bands end up sounding like a lot of bands, but the great ones sound like themselves. Fontaines had that from the beginning. They don’t sound like anyone else—you hear how they have assimilated their influences, but they have moulded their own distinctive voice. Each album reveals more on each listen. Nobody knows what that formula is, but always it’s gotta start with bloody great songs.”
Whether it was the moment vocalist Grian Chatten snarled, “Charisma / Is exquisite manipulation / And money is the sandpit of the soul” on the song ‘Chequeless Reckless’ from their debut album Dogrel, or when they grounded the sonic composition of ‘The Couple Across The Way’ from Skinty Fia with an accordion, they’re a band who’ve consistently been creatively uncompromising.
Everything about them spits in the face of commercial expectations. Their lyricism is both abstract and dense; their melodies can be harsh and from a marketing standpoint, they’ve traditionally been inaccessible. And for the purists, that’s an ingredient list that combines perfectly to make artistry the hero ingredient. But in the modern world where content is king and access is an expectation, that’s an antiquated approach.
But the unwavering loyalty with which they’ve honoured those principles has made them the heroes of counter-culture and arguably the biggest band in the world today. But in the murky world of the technological revolution and art reduced to moments of fleeting aesthetic, it’s easy to forget that articulate subculturalism has always been the bedrock of band megastardom.
Be it The Clash, Radiohead, or perhaps the band I previously mentioned and the yardstick by which Fontaines are measured, Arctic Monkeys. The biggest bands in the world have been an intellectual antidote to hyper-pop commercialism, and they speak to a yearning that will always exist among music fans for authenticity.
How do the numbers stack up?
Romance was the first Fontaines D.C. album backed by XL Recordings and subsequently received a more widespread marketing push than any of their predecessors. But of the 4 albums they have released, only 1 record has peaked at number 1 on any of the world’s album charts. Hitting the top spot in Ireland and the UK was their third record, 2022’s Skinty Fia.
On top of that, none of their singles have ever peaked at number 1. While we named Starburster our top song of 2024, it peaked at 10th in the UK singles charts, while Romance’s closer ‘Favourite’ hit number 14 in the UK but number 3 in the US. In comparison, past world-dominators Arctic Monkeys have had 6 number-1 albums and 2 number-1 singles, while Radiohead have clocked six number-1 albums. However, perhaps more interestingly, in the debate for contemporary greatness, IDLES has had 2 number 1 albums and 1 number 1 singles.
But if you follow the less stat-obsessed path and track the trajectory of Fontaines D.C. from a more creative standpoint, the tale of the tape reads very differently. Admittedly, IDLES headlined a bigger stage at last year’s Glastonbury, but with the performance Fontaines D.C. put in on The Park Stage, talks of the Irish five-piece storming the big one are grounded in far more legitimacy than fantasy.
Moreover, they have sold out a seminal Finsbury Park gig this coming July, a venue steeped in history and often assumed to be the final gateway before rock immortality. Much like the Arctic Monkeys – who have assumed the yardstick role in this discussion – Finsbury Park will be the stage for a show celebrating an album produced by James Ford. A legendary creative who has commandeered the studio sessions of artists who know what it’s like to sit at the table of global mega-stardom.
But more important than all of these metrics is the boots-on-the-ground feedback garnered from this album. As I sat in a packed pub over Christmas, I couldn’t help but notice the entire discography of Fontaines D.C., playing over the speakers in sequence. In an environment heralded as one of the last bastions of normal civilisation, where devices are tucked away and conversations are allowed to flourish, every fibre of the Fontaines identity was blurted out to pub-goers. What struck me was the intangible quality of the band that goes way beyond chart metrics and tour revenues; instead, it was their seamless ability to soundtrack the truthfulness of the moment I was existing in. And it was at that particular moment that I understood the gravity of what my music-loving predecessors had told me about when that once-in-a-generation band comes along and captures the zeitgeist.
