FONTAINES D.C. GET CINEMATIC WITH “MARIANNE” AND NEW DAVE MEYERS VIDEO

Fontaines D.C. are back, and this time they’ve brought a full-blown cinematic fever dream with them.

The Irish band has released “Marianne,” the lead single from their newly announced fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, out October 16 via XL Recordings. The record was produced by James Ford and follows the band’s huge 2024 album, Romance.

With “Marianne,” Fontaines D.C. keep drifting further from the guitar-heavy post-punk world that first made them impossible to ignore. The song leans into atmospheric synths, sweeping strings, and Grian Chatten’s unmistakable voice, building something that feels huge, strange, and oddly beautiful all at once. It’s a track about escapism, partly inspired by the 2024 series Ripley, and it carries that same shadowy, stylish tension.

“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity,” Chatten says.

And if you’re going to go big and cinematic, Dave Meyers is a pretty good person to call.

The legendary director helms the video for “Marianne,” giving the track a fluorescent, surreal world to live in. Meyers’ résumé is absurd, with credits including Kendrick Lamar’s “HUMBLE.” and Travis Scott’s “SICKO MODE,” but his hyper-stylized approach fits this increasingly strange version of Fontaines D.C. better than you might expect.

“Marianne” also offers the first real glimpse of where Dopamine Chamber is headed. Chatten has described the album as darker and less hopeful than Romance, while bassist Conor Deegan says the band kept circling a deceptively simple question: where do you escape to?

That question seems to run through the center of “Marianne.” Fontaines D.C. aren’t trying to remake Romance, and they’re definitely not retreating to the jagged post-punk sound of their early records. They’re pushing forward, getting weirder, and sounding completely uninterested in playing it safe.

Dopamine Chamber arrives October 16 via XL Recordings. Until then, “Marianne” gives us plenty to sit with.