Fontaines DC are back with their highly-anticipated fifth album Dopamine Chamber (XL Recordings).
It’s fair to say that expectations are high given the success of 2024’s Romance with 345,759 sales to date (Official Charts Company) – the Irish band’s biggest record to date despite it being their most recent. Dopamine Chamber’s lead single Marianne became their first UK Top 20 single, along with several multiple charting songs.
The campaign will get a further boost with arena shows this month.
The band have topped 10 million monthly listeners on Spotify. But for release day Music Week is going to focus on Fontaines DC’s stellar physical sales. XL Recordings organised no less than 374 Dopamine Chamber listening parties in record stores in 38 different countries across the world.
Here, Rough Trade MD Lawrence Montgomery breaks down the band’s physical sales performance across their stores and outlines the huge expectations for the record…
Fontaines DC achieved their biggest ever album with Romance and have just scored their first Top 20 single in the UK. How big do you think Dopamine Chamber could be for the band?
“The growth Fontaines DC achieved since the release of Romance means there is a much larger addressable audience than before. We have supported the band since day one, stocking their early singles before they signed to Partisan. They played outside Rough Trade West for Record Store Day in 2019 and we have hosted countless in-stores and out-stores with them on previous albums.”
How did Romance perform at Rough Trade and how do you think this new album will compare in terms of the opening week and beyond?
“Romance is the best-selling record of all time at Rough Trade. However, the first week's pre-orders for us were approximately four times higher on Dopamine Chamber, which proves the point about there being a much larger addressable audience for the new album. As a retailer, we loved that Romance continued to sell beyond week one which is rare these days. We are still selling around 50 units a week of that album two years after its release.”
It's so important for us that these landmark, large albums break through indie labels, via indie stores
Lawrence Montgomery
XL/Beggars works closely with indie stores, how does this help in terms of launch events/listening parties and ongoing stock availability?
“We love working with indie labels like XL/Beggars on these campaigns. It's so important for us that these landmark, large albums break through indie labels, via indie stores. We have good availability on the indie vinyl variant and are excited for the listening parties.”
How does this album help to broaden their appeal even further? The album announcement described the move away from the "guitar language" of early albums, with Rosalía as a guest artist.
“It's great to see their sound change over the years. It broadens the audience and helps maintain interest in the record as an audio experience. A few of our team members have listened to it and gave rave reviews. I'm saving myself for release day and am excited to check it out.”
They have been prolific in terms of releases, do you expect to see this album help to further drive catalogue sales?
“Undoubtedly, as they acquire a new set of fans, this will drive interest in their back catalogue. We're selling over 100 units per week of their combined catalogue at the moment and we expect that to increase in the coming weeks.”
PHOTO: Ewen Spencer
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