Static

Fontaines reign as “Static” Listeners’ Favourite Album of 2024

On 2SER’s “Static” we rolled out our listener-picked Top 10 Albums of 2024.

Thanks to everyone who voted!

Top spot this year goes to Dublin’s formidable post-punk fellers Fontaines D.C., for their fourth album “Romance”.
In a first for any artist, they are now 4 for 4 in placements in our Listeners’ Poll – and each album’s ranking has been an improvement on the previous one. Their debut album “Dogrel” came in at #7 in 2019; their second record “A Hero’s Death” landed at #4 in 2020; and their previous release “Skinty Fia” hit #2 in 2022.

“Fourth time lucky!” drummer Tom hinted at his prospects, when we spoke to him here on the program in September.

The Irish lads have been on the top of their game since the start, and this album saw them strive to reinvent themselves and confound expectations.This album was a bigger flex in terms of its sound and style – from its day-glo artwork and the band’s cyberpunk dress-code, to the heaving hip hop rhythms on panic attack-inspired lead single “Starburster“ – it was a confident swing for the fences. The band namechecked the likes of Mos Def, A$AP Ferg, OutKast and The Prodigy as touchstones, and Tom revealed to us “Everyone got into lots of sampling, and more electronic-influenced stuff. It’s been really fun to explore. A lot of us bought drum machines!”
At the same time, they couldn’t resist laying on the jangle in breezy closing track “Favourite”, and showstopper “In The Modern World” was a string-laden, loved-up epic that confessed “Seems so hard not to be free – When you walk right beside me.”

Frontman Grian’s heart is never far from his sleeve on Fontaines D.C. records, but this one was more intimate. Thematically, Tom said “This record is a little bit more introspective and a little bit darker than our previous stuff.” The more personal aspects were reflected in that album title – he added “A lot of the themes on the album are dealing with the idea of romance, and the work and the strife that goes into it sometimes. It’s not all rosy.”

It all added up to a rosy romantic #1 album, and we crushed hard on Fontaines D.C. this year!