Ranked: Fontaines D.C.'s Greatest Albums

"That all that excitement, untamed talent and restless artistry could converge and unfold in a space built for collective devotion felt like poetry in motion. For a brief moment, they felt like ours."

Photo: Sam Corocan

So here's the thing. Unwavering authenticity has always been the heartbeat of Fontaines D.C. To me, their journey to international renown has closely mirrored the magic of the record store - discovery, connection and devotion. It's a "three-point plan" that has proved its worth in certified gold, evidenced most recently with the release of their biggest album to date, 2024's Romance. Authenticity is hard won. It takes persistence, self-awareness, and a refusal to bend to easy shortcuts. Fontaines D.C. embody this truth, holding fast to their roots while continually refining their art. Far from veering off-course, they’ve only deepened their craft, building on hard-forged foundations to create a body of work now revered and still brimming with promise.

Frustratingly, I was called up for jury service the week of Dogrel's release. By some divine intervention, no case came my way and I was dismissed the day of the Rough Trade East in-store, exiting the Old Bailey to race across town and congregate amongst the packed crowd, the air fully charged with anticipation. What followed was an all-out, bone-rattling live experience that swallowed the room whole. And the rest, as they say, is history.

An ever-evolving force, Fontaines D.C's sound and focus are the defining mark of a band built to endure. Here's my ranking* of their studio catalogue to date.

*Disclaimer: Ranking discographies such as this one is fucking hard and - obviously - they are all very significant as standalone works. Not a dud in sight. Pro tip: go see them live.

4. A Hero's Death (2020)

Life ain’t always empty

Let me be very clear - some of Fontaines D.C.'s best songs are housed on this album: Televised Mind, A Lucid Dream, I Don't Belong and of course, the title track. All live staples, all exceptionally great. A Hero's Death has also got some of the band's most memorable phrases, permanently etched on our brains in frontman Grian Chatten's distinctive vocal delivery. Released during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a total balm for the uncertainly that hung in the air - and the music industry - throughout those long, lonely months.

Arriving swiftly on the heels of Dogrel, the second album is a defiant step forward that both fed and cemented the runaway buzz around the band post-debut. It offers something more searching, bracing and anthemic. A Hero's Death established Fontaines D.C. not only as the most vital of their peers, but as rock powerhouses in their own right, breaking out from the wave of rising acts like Shame, Black Country, New Road and Sorry to carve a path that felt wholly their own.

Best tracks: You Said, A Hero's Death, Televised Mind

3. Romance (2024)

Will someone
Find out what the word is
That makes the world go 'round
'Cause I thought it was love
But some say
That it has to be choice
I read it in some book
Or an old packet of smokes

In late March of 2024 a few of us from Rough Trade were invited to hear the new Fontaines D.C. album at XL HQ. New label, new producer, new era. Oh such a spring. As soon as the needle dropped and Romance’s opening track seeped heavy and ominous into the room, not even the softest choc hazelnut Buns From Home delicacy in my sugared hands could distract me. This was BIG. This was next level.

Romance is undeniably a huge record. Its sprawling, haunting grandeur is immediate - addictive and engulfing. The songs lean toward a more accessible sound, with an eclectic mix of 90s alt-rock, Americana, and a splash of Britpop colliding to form an emotionally full-bodied work of art. Shoutout to the string arrangements, which totally elevate it. A incredibly cool touch is the ultrasound heartbeat of Carlos O’Connell’s daughter, incorporated into Horseness Is the Whatness. A friend observed the production feels timeless. He's not wrong. It's the album that rightly took them from cult status to alt-rock superstardom, practically overnight.

Best tracks: In The Modern World, Horseness Is the Whatness, Starburster

2. Skinty Fia (2022)

"This album has been a little bit more collaborative which has been a really good experience. We were writing 5 days a week until 6pm, so it really felt like a job."

Tom Coll, Fontaines D.C.

This album plays like the culmination of Fontaines D.C.’s formative years - a sweeping, beautiful record that swaps scrappy urgency for great adventure and searing honesty. Slower, more tender moments sit alongside songs of resilience and resistance, their sound pushed into bolder, more expansive territory.

Skinty Fia marked a hat-trick with producer Dan Carey and the first record written and recorded while the band were living permanently in London. It's a backdrop that seeps into its atmosphere and themes of identity, heritage and displacement. Their sophomore also stands as a more collaborative work, the five members shaping a more ambitious sound that, in hindsight, probably foreshadowed the wider-ranging panorama they would go on to carve out on Romance.

For many fans, Skinty Fia stands as Fontaines D.C.’s finest work - ten tracks of enduring resonance, cutting deep and destined to remain in ár gCroíthe go deo (in our hearts forever).

Best tracks: Roman Holiday, Jackie Down The Line, I Love You, In ár gCroíthe go deo

1. Dogrel (2019)

Dublin in the rain is mine
A pregnant city with a catholic mind

To truly grasp the artistic imprint of Fontaines D.C., you have to begin at the source. The debut is a statement of intent, steeped in identity, place and defiance. The grit and pulse of those early beginnings continue to inform all they have accomplished since, grounding their evolution in a sense of who they are and where they come from. 

Dogrel played a large part in the story of Rough Trade in 2019, a year punctuated by intimate performances under our roof (and our raging skies), and the swell of attention around the sonic parable of five lads from Dublin, with a penchant for Joycean poetry and raw, riff-driven laments. Unsurprisingly, the record sat at the top of our end of year list. No contender.

That all that excitement, untamed talent and restless artistry could converge and unfold in a space built for collective devotion felt like poetry in motion. For a brief moment, they felt like ours. I am certain it’s a feeling that resonates with fans at any entry point into Fontaines’ canon, but for me, never more so than at their genesis.

Best tracks: Boys in the Better Land, Too Real, Dublin City Sky, Big, Hurricane Laughter