Fontaines D.C. have shared another new single, ‘Tongue’ – you can listen to it below.
The track will appear on the Dublin band’s fifth studio album, ‘Dopamine Chamber’, released on October 16 via XL Recordings. It follows on from lead single ‘Marianne’, which arrived last month.
Guitarist Carlos O’Connell pushed frontman Grian Chatten’s vocal through a sampler to distort the pitch on ‘Tongue’, resembling “a malicious extraterrestrial voice” over screeching guitars, eerie piano and strings.
Fontaines aimed to process and twist the human elements of the single into strange and disorienting shapes. “Deep inside your brain/ I feel the same,” Chatten sings. “Deeper as we go/ I think you know…”
Explaining the recording process of the menacing and experimental tune, guitarist Conor Curley said: “We continued where ‘Romance’ left off, leaving the live-band elements until they were really needed.”
Inspired by a studio technique often used by Prince, bassist Conor ‘Deego’ Deegan III provided the slouchy bassline by manipulating tape speed. As a result, his part evokes
the loose, pitched character of sampled hip-hop bass.
‘Tongue’ is accompanied by an official music video, directed by John Angus Stewart and filmed by Fontaines D.C. in New York City.
Fontaines D.C. debuted ‘Tongue’ live at their show in Brooklyn, New York, last week. After footage of the performance emerged, some fans said they could hear Korn‘s influence coming through. In 2024, Chatten and co. told NME about their love of the nu-metal outfit.
They’ve also been playing the as-yet-unreleased songs ‘Six Shot Morning’ and ‘Happy For You’ at recent gigs, having premiered the latter at Leeds Festival.
The band shared the full tracklist for the forthcoming ‘Dopamine Chamber’ earlier this month, revealing a collaboration with Rosalía on ‘Where Is Gone?’.
Fontaines D.C. live at Reading 2026. Credit: Andy Ford for NME
Next summer, Fontaines D.C. will play some massive gigs in the UK and Ireland, including two nights at Slane Castle and a double-header at Manchester’s Heaton Park. Support on the UK stops comes from Little Simz and Viagra Boys, with Hayley Williams opening in Ireland.
The outdoor run follows their 2026 UK and European arena tour this autumn, off the back of last month’s Reading & Leeds headline slots. Find any remaining tickets here (UK/Europe).
They recently announced new concerts in Italy and Germany as part of their 2027 trek, as well as dates in Japan, Australia and New Zealand.
‘Dopamine Chamber’ moves deeper into “darker and more synthetic sounds”, searching for pleasure amid peril “in a world tipping towards collapse” from threats in digital and artificial worlds, as the group said in a statement.
“The album itself is a dopamine chamber,” explained Chatten. “You step inside and we test these different mind or mood-altering pieces of music on you.”
The follow-up to 2024’s acclaimed and Mercury-nominated ‘Romance’ comes after Fontaines’ recent contributions to the Peaky Blinders: The Immortal Man soundtrack and the War Child ‘Help(2)’ album.
Chatten continued: “I think ‘Romance’ was maybe 60 per cent human and 40 per cent corrupted by automation, and a loss of feeling. This one feels more like 60 per cent corrupted – the mask is wearing the face a little more. I felt it would be more powerful to leave the hope out and reflect the ugliness honestly. This one needed to feel more like a catastrophic warning.
“There’s a poignant sense of us being on the brink of some other kind of form of humanity, or non-humanity.”
NME gave Fontaines D.C.’s Reading Festival 2026 headline performance a four-and-a-half-star review, hailing it as “a deserved coronation from the band of our time”. The slot also made it into our rundown of the “most magical moments” from this year’s R&L.
You can view the original article HERE.
