CD Album: FONTAINES D.C. 'DOPAMINE CHAMBER', Produced by James Ford

LABEL: XL RECORDINGS
RELEASE DATE: 10/23/2026
VARIANT: CD

Five albums in, Fontaines D.C. hand over Dopamine Chamber — out October 16, 2026 on XL Recordings, with James Ford in the producer’s chair. It comes after 2024’s Romance, which carried the Dublin group from critical favourites to one of the biggest bands in the world.

Romance went in at No. 2 in in the UK, where it’s since been certified platinum, and gave the band their first Billboard 200 entry. Two GRAMMY nods came its way (Best Rock Album and Best Alternative Music Performance for “Starburster”), along with International Group of the Year at the 2025 BRIT Awards — their second BRIT. The Album Award at the 2024 Rolling Stone UK Awards, Ireland’s Choice Music Prize and a Mercury Prize shortlist rounded things off.

First taste “Marianne” arrived with a Dave Meyers video; he’s the director behind Kendrick’s “HUMBLE” and Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE”. The album itself drifts in like a constellation behind undulating sighs of smog — potent balladry with anthemic melodies glinting through the murk. What does pleasure do to us when the world tips toward collapse? That question runs through the whole thing. The guitar language of the early records is gone; something colder, stranger and more synthetic has taken its place.

Chatten explains the title as a room the listener walks into. “The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” he says. “You step inside and we test these different mind- or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”

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