It’s been about a year since Fontaines D.C. released their debut album Dogrel last year, which was our very favorite album of 2019..
While most bands would parade around supporting the same album for two years straight, Fontaines got right back to work and today they announced that their new album A Hero’s Death will be released on July 31st via Partisan Records. It was produced by Dan Carey (Black Midi, Bat For Lashes) in his London studio and described the new recording as sounding more “restrained, spectral balladry.”
Along with the announcement comes the release of the first single and title track “A Hero’s Death.” The song is a perfect first release as it both channels that now-familiar urgent energy from their first album but also signals a shift into a brand new era. It’s another winner from the band, and we wouldn’t expect anything less.
The single comes with a music video starring Aidan Gillen (Game Of Thrones‘ Littlefinger) as a talk show host whose slowly losing his mind.
Singer Grian Chatten has this to say about the song and video:
The song is a list of rules for the self, they’re principles for self-prescribed happiness that can often hang by a thread. It’s ostensibly a positive message, but with repetition comes different meanings, that’s what happens to mantras when you test them over and over. There’s this balance between sincerity and insincerity as the song goes on and you see that in the music video as well. That’s why there’s a lot of shifting from major key to minor key. The idea was influenced by a lot of the advertising I was seeing – the repetitive nature of these uplifting messages that take on a surreal and scary feel the more you see them.
The title came from a line in a play by Brendan Behan, and I wrote the lyrics during a time where I felt consumed by the need to write something else to alleviate the fear that I would never be able follow up ‘Dogrel.’ But more broadly it’s about the battle between happiness and depression, and the trust issues that can form tied to both of those feelings.
Enjoy the music video below, along with the album art and tracklist:
‘A Hero’s Death’ Tracklist:
1. I Don’t Belong
2. Love Is The Main Thing
3. Televised Mind
4. A Lucid Dream
5. You Said
6. Oh Such A Spring
7. A Hero’s Death
8. Living In America
9. I Was Not Born
10. Sunny
11. No
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