Irish post-punk juggernauts Fontaines D.C have announced their fourth studio album ROMANCE, out 23 August, 2024 via XL Recordings.

The LP is the band’s first with producer James Ford, who’s long list of credits includes Arctic Monkey’s 2013 opus AM. The record will look to build on the success of 2022’s Skinty Fia, which topped the album charts in the UK and Ireland.

Accompanying the new album announcement is the release of lead single ‘Starburster’, a stomping number said to be inspired by a panic attack suffered by lead singer Grian Chatten in London’s St Pancras station.

Described in a statement as Fontaines D.C’s “most ambitious” record yet, ROMANCE is said to birthed from ideas which the band conjured up while touring North America with Arctic Monkeys, citing Shygirl, OutKast, The Prodigy and Sega Bodega as some of the project's key influences.

Bass player Conor Deegan shared some insight on the new project. “We’ve always had this sense of idealism and romance,” he said, discussing the LP’s title.

“Each album gets further away from observing that through the lens of Ireland, as directly as Dogrel. The second album is about that detachment, and the third is about Irishness dislocated in the diaspora. Now we look to where and what else there is to be romantic about.”

Frontman Chatten expanded on these sentiments, recalling Katsuhiro Ôtomo’s anime Akira, which depicts a world where the embers of love develop in a hostile environment.

“I’m fascinated by that - falling in love at the end of the world,” he said. “The album is about protecting that tiny flame. The bigger armageddon looms, the more precious it becomes.”

ROMANCE, the band’s first album with XL recordings, will be toured across the world this summer, with dates at Glastonbury and Reading & Leeds among those already announced. More headline shows are set to be confirmed soon.

For more information on tour dates and the upcoming album, click here.