Fontaines DC's 20 Greatest Songs, Ranked Ahead of Dopamine Chamber

The Guardian has counted down the Irish alt-rock band's 20 greatest tracks as the run-up to their fifth studio album, Dopamine Chamber, begins.

The list, published this October, frames Fontaines DC's catalogue in three blunt words: "fierce, frantic and loaded with menace." That's the right shape for the band, and the ranking sets out to prove it.

Across four studio records, Fontaines DC have built a sound out of tightly wound guitars and a willingness to lean into dread. Their songs, the paper writes, are "potent, occasionally political" without ever sounding like a lecture. A 20-track ranking is a way of forcing that argument into a single order, and the cuts are themselves an editorial statement.

What does the ranking cover?

The list runs through 20 tracks drawn from the band's four studio records. It works as both a primer for new listeners and a fresh argument about which Fontaines songs actually carry the most weight. Most acts at this stage get ranked as a retrospective; Fontaines DC are getting one mid-cycle, before the fifth album.

The timing matters. Dopamine Chamber is pegged as the band's most anticipated release, and a ranked retrospective gives readers a curated on-ramp before it lands. It also tells the band where the editorial consensus thinks their peaks actually sit.

That shape, drawn in advance, changes how the next record will be heard. Newcomers will arrive already knowing which songs the press treats as the high points.

Where does the list find its lighter side?

The list includes "It's Amazing to Be Young." The song is unusual in mood for the band: euphoric, almost tender, written for the birth of guitarist Carlos O'Connell's daughter. Most Fontaines tracks lean on menace or velocity; this one lifts. Putting it on a list framed as "fierce, frantic and loaded with menace" makes the tenderness feel like a deliberate signal.

Frontman Grian Chatten has framed that pivot carefully. "Sometimes, optimism is a necessary delusion," he said in the broader piece. The line lands harder because it admits the strain underneath. A band built on dread allowing itself one bright track, and admitting even that brightness is partly a posture, reads as a small confession.

The song also reads as a forecast. Dopamine Chamber, as a title, leans toward sensation rather than dread. A ranking that ends on a tender moment begins to set expectations for what the new record might actually sound like.

So what does this change for the band?

It sharpens the bar. If the new album wants to register as a peak, it now has to clear peaks the band itself already set. That's a different kind of pressure than competing against peers, and it makes Dopamine Chamber feel less like a debut than a referendum on the previous four records.

It also changes the band's relationship with its own back catalogue. A ranked list turns four records into a fixed reference frame. From now on, any new track will be measured against the order this piece has imposed. That's a quiet shift, but one the band will feel on every press release for the rest of the cycle.

The full 20-song ranking is on The Guardian's website.