Vinyl Club: Fontaines D.C's "Dopamine Chamber"

0:17 Hey Don. Yuck. Yeah, good thanks. How you? Rude, Sam. What? Didn't even ask. Didn't even didn't even care.

0:26 When we start in a show like this, I thought you were joking. Mate, show's on.

0:29 Oh. Hello, everybody. Hi, Dr. Nick. Who's Dr. Nick? Have you never watched The Simpsons? No. I'm I'm really thinking about corn quits and this whole thing right now. I went outside when I was when I was young.

0:47 And I wasn't allowed to watch it. Yeah, that looked, yeah. I was one of those kids. Too rude. Wasn't allowed to watch The Simpsons. But I could watch Future Armour. Riddle me that. Well, I mean, lucky we don't swear on this podcast. Fucking oh. Lucky it didn't uh it impact us long term. Yeah. Maybe it did impact me long term.

1:01 I think the last couple of years just being chronically online's really um fried his little brain cells. It's really sped up and accelerated my autism. So it's great. Yeah. Anyway, Sam.

1:12 Anyway. Let's get into some Fontaine's, some Fountains District of Columbia, Sam. Some Fontaine's DC with dopamine chamber. A brand new record that dropped just a few weeks ago. It is.

1:22 Fontaine's Dublin City, I think you'll find. That's not possible. Uh it is actually. That's not possible at all, Sam. Are you gaslighting me? Fontaine's not Irish. I would never gaslight you, Sam. I'm offended that you'd think I'd gaslight you.

1:36 That's really on you, actually. I think the way you think about me gaslighting you actually says a little about you.

1:40 Yeah, I think it says way more about your impatience and your kind of I've lost it. Your character, Sam. Says a little about your you and your characters. You're observing my imperfections. And I think you thinking I'm gaslighting you is actually gaslighting me.

1:55 I don't feel perceived. Anyway, Sam, we are talking about Fontaine's DC, and we are talking about Dopamine Chamber. I think in this record, and I've mentioned to you this, mentioned this to you off air, I feel like in this record they've gone from being what we used to refer to as Irish Oasis to Irish Joy Division.

2:10 But with a little bit a little bit extra new order thrown in there, just for just for fun. So Kylo Wren and such. For anyone who doesn't necessarily know, uh Joy Division, very post-punk, very uh bass heavy, very deep voices. Are you good at that?

2:27 Kylo Ren's first order, not new order.

2:30 Is he? Yeah, I fucked that up. Ah well. I had to Google it.

2:34 No one, no one watched episode nine anyway. It's only the first two in that run. Who calls it episode nine? Sorry, I'm just completely derailing your review. Keep going.

2:44 Uh, I think very, very post-punk this out. Like, you know, the band has always been very post-punk in general, but I think there was a lot more jangle to their their their last record, Romance. Jangle. And there's a lot more melody. But then I think in in this record, I think they've really embraced that sort of post-punk sound that they had before uh romance, and they've kind of added added layers into that.

3:04 Yeah.

3:05 If that makes sense. It feels like they've taken songs like Desire, Sundowner, and just made them a bit darker.

3:11 There's well, there's a lot of darkness in this record, but I think there's also a lot of light in the record. So uh it starts out pretty strong out of the gates with six shot morning. And I gotta be honest, I really enjoyed this song. Like it was very synthy and the big atmospheric, swirly kind of sound added felt like a very cool addition to that post-punk kind of layer that they they they built it with.

3:29 I also like that they added in backing vocals, which aren't necessarily something that you associate with Fontaine's DC that you put with that sound. Um, and then they roll straight into Marianne, which is uh one of the singles that they dropped. I think it was the first single from the record. It was.

3:42 Say that again. Marianne. Oh, there we go. And same, same again. It was kind of that big roomy synth kind of feel, very post-punk in the bass line, and like very, very catchy choruses. It felt very pop. Then we move into I'm what I think, I think it's Mimesis, I think. I've been saying Mimesis, yeah.

3:58 Yeah. Um Mimesis, I don't know. Um, Mump Misses is out there. Anyway, Sam. Just gonna let that one die. Very city calm down, very, very much leaning back into that classic post punk kind of feel. Same with happy for you, which is kind of in the same realm with slightly more uh kind of it's kind of pungy.

4:18 Grungy, yeah, pungy, grungy sound.

4:20 I said I thought it sounded something a bit like smashing pumpkins. Yeah, when the guitars kick in towards the end, it's it's very rocky for Fontaines. Um you're right. My Mises is the pronunciation, and it means the imitation, representation, or reproduction of aspects of the real world, especially human behavior, nature, and actions.

4:37 Yeah, I think it might be a platonic uh philosophical term if we think about the the platonic forms and how they are a an imperfect representation of the ideal representation of all um you know intangible concepts, truth, beauty, justice, etc. Yeah, like you said. Yeah, and you've always heard that. I've I you know what?

4:59 Like Plato, I've always had that, Sam.

5:01 I used to eat that. The I actually didn't, it's just funny. I ate sand. That's somehow worse. Salty.

5:11 Gritty? Gritty, for sure. The gritty. This is in film, so I can do whatever the fuck I want. I think once we start to get into some of these sort of middle of the record songs is where we start to see a bit of a switch up. They've gone, they've started with big synthie sounds, then they go into kind of that uh post-punk meets new gaze, shoe gaze, grunge kind of sound.

5:39 Kind of upbeat. Yeah. Then through the back half of the record, they start with like uh what's the right kind of word? Like almost almost shady Nazi jazz kind of sound. Um, with a with a song like tongue. Um one man has a very big, almost straight up pop kind of like uh layer to it. Um, and Where is Gone, which features Rosalia, has a very cinematic, almost Lana del Rey, old Hollywood like duet kind of sound to it.

6:08 Yeah, I'd say one man is like straight up just yearning and like it's a banger.

6:13 It's it it is it is a banger, and like it's probably one man, I think, is probably my favorite song on this record. I think what is very interesting, oh and sorry, one more to to emphasize my point. Uh You Miss Me kind of I think samples from, or it doesn't sample from, but it takes cues from like kind of electronic music and sampling music.

6:30 Like the way that that the drumbeat is so flat and deliberately so, and and the kind of that string section in the verses feels so very tightly like to the grid sampled. It like it starts exactly on the beat, and it's so it's like you know, it would be almost like Fat Boy Slim making a record. If Fat Boy Slim made a Fontaine's DC song, I think that's what that song would sound like.

6:52 Yeah, it's also the best I reckon Grimes ever sounded vocally, like the little vibrato in his voice in You Miss Me and stuff, very impressive. Very much so. I'm gonna mention one song, and I'm interested to get I'm gonna come back to it if I'm interrupting your review, but I do have a question about one song that I think I want to pick your brain about.

7:12 Sure. Uh what I was gonna say is the the way that this album moves through. At first I thought on like this album could really do with a reordering, a restructuring, uh, because it's weird that they kind of songs come in pairs or twos or threes, where it's like, here's the two synth songs, here's the two pop-punk songs, here's the two kind of weird rhythmic songs, here's the two synthie songs, like you know, whatever, next thing through the list.

7:34 And they kind of come in these pairs. And I at first I thought, I don't like that they are like that, like it's chunked up like that. Like we they should be redistributed and they should kind of flow in like a you know, each one flows into the next with more energy. But I think, and I don't know if this is intentional from the uh from the from the band, but to me, it kind of feels like they want this record to be cyclical, and you can tune in anywhere and keep listening through and come back to the start, and you'll be on the same journey no matter where you start.

8:00 Like it comes, you start at the if you start with the pop punk part, then you go into the shady nasty jazz kind of shit, then you go into the the duet Rosalia thing and move through, and then you you you end on the the synth part because intimate closes on the same kind of close, like intimate, sorry, intimate closes on the same synthie kind of sound that we get at the start of the record.

8:17 So I think it just it feels like a closed loop cyclical cycle of a record. Cyclical cycle, that's how that's a good thing. A cyclical cycle. A cyclical cycle. It it feels like it's it's meant to be experienced through a run through, but not necessarily top to bottom.

8:32 Yeah, it's interesting that you say that because I definitely say it. I think um before we get into what our vinyl club members have to say about it, Where is Gone with Rosalia feels like a song that's out of place and it feels like it's a song that didn't need to be duetted to me.

8:54 I disagree, well, but I can understand where you're coming from. It does stand out on the record, but I don't think I don't think it's out of place. I think it stands out without being sticking out, if that makes a difference. Like I think I think that Rosalia and Grian's voices together are actually really like they're very well suited to each other.

9:16 Okay.

9:17 Um, I think where Grian is obviously so deep and mourning and melancholy, but Rosalia is so bright and you know, I use pop in the broad term. Like I know she can do the operatic parts and all these other things, but in this song she's just bringing this kind of a straight up pop delivery. Yeah. I think the way that their voices gel together and in the instrumentation and composition of the song in this kind of like yeah, old Hollywood kind of like old school duet, it just felt like it worked for me.

9:49 I think it's it's one of my favorite songs on the track. Sorry, on the on the record. Um and I think that leads me to my other major point for this record, which is that it feels like uh Fontaines are shouting out the other artists and the other sounds that they are feeling inspired by at the moment.

10:06 So like I think um uh I think that tongue which copped a lot of heat as a single, if you look at it through the lens of like, this is like a shady nasty inspired song. It's hyper-rhythmic, it's got this kind of like weird, half-rapped vocal delivery, it's got odd instrumentation and and percussion all through it.

10:26 Um, I think it's it's a shady nasty song. I think the uh as I said before, Happy Feud sounds like a bit like smashing pumpkins or like that kind of almost new gaze, shoe gaze kind of sound. Rosalia, I think as an artist, is doing similar things to what Fontaine's is doing, is taking the pop format and adding weird other sounds to it.

10:46 And I think there's a few that kind of pop up like that, like You Miss Me has that electronic vibe to it. It kind of has almost a Fred again, like um, you know, music concrete, sampling the real world and chopping it up and delivering it in that way, kind of element to it from a Fontaine's perspective.

11:04 And I think that this record is as much about them doing a Fontaine's record, but of their a Fontaine's record built out of the sounds that they are experiencing around them, like the other music and and that they wanted to put their twist on. And I think it's really cool. Um, I think that that was how I kind of felt about this record.

11:20 It felt like it's yeah, doing the Fontaine's version of other sounds in the alt-pop, alt-rock kind of world. Um, and my main question off the back of that is is this the high watermark of that as a as a approach to music making, you know, or is this opening the door for that to be, you know, many more records to come down the line like that um from other artists?

11:45 I I don't know. We'll we want time will tell, but yeah, that was my uh that was my interpretation of dopamine chamber, Sam.

11:53 Very philosophical. Thank you. Should we open it up to what our vinyl club members thought? Where where did they tell us all their thoughts, Sam? Uh you can join our broadcast channel, Vinyl Club. Wow, where's that, Sam? Instagram Maxwell. Oh my god.

12:04 How's your back feeling? Not good. And and you're telling me that they get to share their thoughts on this record.

12:10 Yes.

12:11 Cool. Just checking.

12:12 Um, I wrote one that I you didn't give much love to this song, but Demolition is arguably the best song Fontaine's have ever written. I think it's quite catchy, but I don't like the start stoppiness of it. I don't want to know if you gotta do the county of it. I think Favourite's still their best song ever written.

12:30 Right. But fuck it's it is catchy. I think it's the catchiest song on the album. It's it's up there, it's definitely up there in terms of the catchiness. I just think rhythmically something didn't quite sit right with me. Yeah, I'm with you though. One man is my favorite song of the album by a country mile.

12:46 Yeah, yeah. I think one man where is gone, six shot morning, and then tongue probably is in there as well for me.

12:56 I don't know the words. I don't know. Tongue didn't do it for me, but that's okay because someone here has said Cherie said Um absolutely heavenly as an album, tongue cops so much unnecessary flack, Fontaines can do no wrong, in her humble opinion.

13:18 I quite liked Jay Henner's uh review of it's a it's a grower, not a shower, and I think that's a really important part of this record. If you bounce off it on first listen, go back, give it a second shot.

13:28 Bounce off it, bounce on that thing, Sam. That's what I tell everyone it's a grower, not a shower, and you whiz. It's embarrassing when it doesn't grow either. Um tiny tiny the uh Yeah, I didn't quite get the Tiny Thurl, maybe Tiny Thurl. Uh it's taken over her life. She hasn't listened to a record this many times since Frank Ocean's Blonde.

13:53 Ooh, 2016. Yeah, very different vibes.

13:56 Well, yes. And also I think there's a lot of the I think Frank Ocean did a bit of like post-hip hop in the way that this is post-punk, you know what I mean? It's very experimental beyond the genre, yeah. Very deconstructing. Uh, and then Vince Central Station is in love with the sound. Can't wait to catch up at Lamo, which is very fair, they are headlining alongside Haley Williams.

14:16 Not that long now. Uh what, three, four months from from now till uh you get till you get to see uh all of this come to life on stage. It's gonna be cool. Yeah, 100%. Okay.

14:26 You got a homework for me, father?

14:28 I do have homework for you, and I'm going to go with this record. It's the it's the next in the series, Sam. We have we haven't done one of these in a little while. I thought um, why don't we do another Coldplayer record?

14:41 And I saw sparks. I do own Parachutes by Coldplay. Parachutes. The first four songs on this album, five songs even. Five songs. They're not on this album. No, they're not. Um, we'll have our people talk to their people. Uh, the first five songs, Don't Panic, Shiver, Spies, uh, Sparks and Yellow. Perfection.

15:04 Yeah. Spies, underrated banger by Coldplay. I don't think I've explored the back end very much. A bit new to that, so I'll give it a whirl. 2000. Yeah.

15:16 Fuck. If uh if you're the kind of person who says, Yeah, fuck Coldplay, they're not they're not cool enough. I think this is absolutely your way into their uh their discography.

15:25 100%. I think they started as like an indie rock band, yeah. Very, very radiohead meets uh blur kind of britt pop kind of thing. Very cool. Sparks is one of the best songs they've ever written. It's not bad. It's not bad. Not bad. Any uh any vinyl thoughts for the week, Sam? Um no, I've recently just installed a vinyl wall in my house.

15:51 Oh, yeah. Uh I've only got six up at the moment, but um let me know which ones I should display. Um from go back through vinyl club, see my collection, let us know. At the moment, I've got Dopamine Chamber up there, uh Black's new album, I've got Shady Nasty up there, Balance of Composure, Basement and uh Halcyon Blues by Citizen.

16:18 Nice, very nice.

16:19 What about you, Maxwell?

16:20 Uh, not too many vinyl thoughts on me, Sam. Um I'm at the moment waiting for the delivery of a few that I ordered, but um none have really rocked in lately. Or rock down rock on down to electric avenues, then. Sure.