Fontaines D.C. keep the live band waiting on Tongue

Produced by James Ford and featuring Rosalía as the first studio guest, the fifth album is twelve days away — UK pre-orders unlock the next run of dates.

Fontaines D.C. released 'Tongue' on 30 September, the second single from their fifth studio album Dopamine Chamber, which is due on 16 October via XL Recordings. The track arrived with a video directed by John Angus Stewart and filmed in New York City.

Guitarist Conor Curley said the song 'continued where Romance left off, leaving the live-band elements until they were really needed.' Tape-manipulated bass by Conor Deegan, and Grian Chatten's vocals — distorted through a sampler by Carlos O'Connell — sit above screeching guitars, eerie piano and strings. The band have described the vocal treatment as a malicious extraterrestrial voice.

The synthetic turn

Dopamine Chamber is produced by James Ford. The Dublin five-piece have framed the record as a move towards darker, more synthetic sounds, a search for pleasure in a world tipping towards collapse. It includes their first guest appearance on a studio album: a duet with Rosalía on 'Where Is Gone?'.

The full tracklist was shared earlier in September. Alongside 'Tongue' it holds the lead single 'Marianne', released on 18 August, and live favourites 'Six Shot Morning' and 'Happy For You'.

Marianne opened the campaign on 18 August. 'Tongue' hardens the synthetic direction ahead of the full album. The presence of Rosalía on 'Where Is Gone?' is presented as part of the record's design rather than an afterthought — the first time a guest voice has been written into a Fontaines D.C. studio album. Paired with the tape and sampler work audible on the new single, it shows how far the group are prepared to step outside the straight five-piece shape that first brought them notice.

That combination — a tighter grip on studio texture, a high-profile guest, and tour access tied to the buy-in — marks a clear step on from the cycle around Romance. The earlier album landed in 2024; 'Tongue' shows the group holding the stage sound in reserve and letting the machines and the tape work carry the weight until a live part is required.

From Dublin outwards

Fontaines D.C. met as a quintet in Dublin and built their name on concise, immediately authentic indie-punk shaped by the city's counter-culture. Dogrel arrived in 2019, followed by A Hero's Death in 2020 and Skinty Fia in 2022, with Skinty Fia go deo the next year and the single 'It's Amazing To Be Young' in 2025. Along the way they earned a reputation for brooding and trenchant live performances across Ireland, the UK and Europe, taking festival slots at Electric Picnic, Hard Working Class Heroes and Other Voices and supporting acts including Franz Ferdinand, Girl Band, The Horrors and The Lemon Twigs.

'Tongue' does not abandon that live reputation; it simply withholds the full band until the arrangement calls for it. In that sense the single is both a bridge from Romance and a statement of how Dopamine Chamber intends to work. The album is now less than a fortnight away. Those who pre-order through the UK store will also learn the shape of the next UK dates. What remains unheard in full is the rest of the tracklist — and the first Fontaines D.C. studio collaboration with a guest vocalist.

Tour dates

NOVEMBER 2026

20 – Liverpool, M&S Bank Arena
21 – Manchester, AO Arena
22 – Glasgow, OVO Hydro
24 – Leeds, Leeds First Direct Bank Arena
25 – Birmingham, Utilita Arena
27 – London, The O2

JUNE 2027

26 – Co. Meath, Slane Castle
27 – Co. Meath, Slane Castle
29 – Cardiff, Blackweir Fields

JULY 2027

1 – Newcastle Upon Tyne, St James Park
3 – Manchester, Heaton Park
4 – Manchester, Heaton Park
6 – Glasgow, Glasgow Green
9 – London, London Stadium