Fontaines D.C. - A Hero's Death
Critic Score
Based on 38 reviews
2020 Ratings: #115 / 871
Year End Rank: #17
User Score
2020 Rank: #130
Liked by 175 people
July 31, 2020 / Release Date
LP / Format
Partisan / Label
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CRITIC REVIEWS

100
musicOMH

Shunning a tried-and-tested formula to focus on evolution and experimentation is always a massive risk. But by choosing to embrace their calmer, and often much darker side, the Dubliners could well have given us their masterpiece.

100
Q Magazine

Rather than succumb to difficult second album syndrome, Fontaines D.C. have emerged frontrunners in an already filed of vital, important young bands. A Hero's Death is a resounding victory.

100
The Guardian
With poetry suffusing both lyrics and music, Fontaines DC capture being young in all its excitement and challenges, its confidence and despair: those years where it feels like you’re trying to find a foothold with your hands. It’s not easy, but then what great album, or life, ever is?
90
RIOT
Authenticity has always been key for Fontaines D.C, and by remaining so they have produced another clear, unedited picture of who they are and what they are made of.
90
DIY
An unexpected move, perhaps, but a deft and accomplished one all the same, this is a second album that builds upon the foundations they’ve laid so far and opens up their world to all manner of possibilities.
90
God Is in the TV
Maybe listening to this record under canvas is the best place to absorb it. Something about the half-light, the great outdoors, the crap outdoors, that feeling you may just rather be somewhere else now.
90
Gigwise

A Hero’s Death is a serious and rare achievement, particularly from a band that could have satisfied everyone with more of the same, and instead chose to evolve.

90
Clash
Subversive, non-conformist and melodious, this record has the credentials of a classic rock and roll album. The decision to take a radical approach only works for the few, the possession of ammunition that’s needed to master such a challenge is not for anyone. Fontaines D.C. have it, and it seems as though they are only just scratching the surface of what’s to come...
85
Northern Transmissions

A Hero’s Death is a moodier, broodier pivot from their blustering 2019 debut, Dogrel. The band know the change might turn away some fans, and they’re okay with it; they’re okay being the hero in “A Hero’s Death.”

85
The Line of Best Fit
This is a powerful, brave and endlessly rewarding album made by a band who have risked it all to make a giant leap towards fulfilling their potential.
81
Paste

After making such a peppy, instant classic debut, they weren’t intimidated by the thought of a Sunday stroll album, and they reached newfound emotional and sonic heights in making one.

81
Pitchfork
Heady, funny, and fearless, the Dublin band’s second album is a maudlin and manic triumph, a horror movie shot as comedy, equal parts future-shocked and handcuffed to history.
80
FLOOD Magazine

On their new album, A Hero’s Death, the band scratch at every itch and pick at every scab they’ve developed during their arduous last twelve months, the uglier the better.

80
The Independent
The Irish band aren’t scared of admitting their own insecurities on this impressive follow-up to their Mercury Prize-shortlisted debut.
80
Spill Magazine

Reminiscent of early Interpol but with the guitars tuned down perhaps, A Hero’s Death is an album that is unafraid to look life in the eyes, but by the time life has looked back, finds itself looking at eyes that have now turned downcast, not out of fear but perhaps resignation.

80
The Sydney Morning Herald

This record is about going out into the world and then going deep inside yourself to try to make sense of everything.

80
The Arts Desk

Though they were determined not to do more of the same, it’s still unmistakably them – all bodacious repetition, lilting brogue.

80
Classic Rock

The title track is the album's keynote, an open letter from father to child advising them on noble living, and a jubilantly noisy address that elevates Fontaines to being among our most profound and important new bands.

80
The Forty-Five
Fontaines DC had plenty to prove on ‘Dogrel’ – on ‘A Hero’s Death’, they enjoy a sense of freedom, and find their sound.
80
The Irish Times
Same band, different songs, same brilliance.
80
Evening Standard
Stripped-back ballad No brings things to a triumphant close, making it clear that while the last year has changed the band, their talents haven’t been dulled in the slightest.
80
Mojo
It's darker and more complex than their debut, but also bigger-sounding.
80
Uncut
Introspective and tightly wound.
80
Exclaim!

The propulsive spark that lit their debut lingers, keeping the record from drifting off into malaise.  There a certainty to their uncertainty. They embrace ambiguity. Fontaines D.C. might be unsure of what they want, but they damn well know what they don't when they see it.

80
NME
Usually, when a band follows up their lauded, hype-building debut album in lightning-fast time, they do so to capitalise on the buzz and double down on any early promise. Fontaines D.C.‘s second album, the tense, often morose ‘A Hero’s Death’, feels like the antithesis of this approach.
73
Beats Per Minute

It might work best if viewed as a companion piece to Dogrel, played immediately after.

70
Spectrum Culture

Less of an immediate sensation as the group’s debut, A Hero’s Death nonetheless cements the group as one of the most exciting rock bands to emerge in an age.

70
Loud and Quiet

Ultimately, A Hero’s Death can be defined by the title track and its definite list of rules for self-prescribed happiness. Though faced by much bloated expectation, its surreal mantra for success is a convincing argument that this is a band hellbent on delivering on the hype, rather than succumbing to it.

70
Rolling Stone

After turning heads on their debut, Dogrel, last year, the post-punks flirt with psychedelia and echoey guitar while their singer stands his ground.

70
Under the Radar

It is missing the stable spine that gave the band’s earlier work such distinctive character, and their repetitious, two-dimensional songs bring the overall package down. Still, when the band is at its best, Fontaines D.C. delivers an irresistible cocktail of post-punk storytelling.

70
No Ripcord
In taking some chances, Fontaines D.C. channel a more complex musical dynamic: willing to experiment, but more streamlined, indebted to punk ferocity but close enough to pop song forms. And it mostly works, though the mixture of Chatten's weary attitudes coupled with the album's percussive and rhythmic uniformity sometimes implies a lack of thought.
70
AllMusic

Setting a high bar on a debut album has always been a double-edged sword, as demonstrated here on A Hero's Death, which is a fine album that is nonetheless a step down from the booze-soaked sticky floors of Dogrel.

70
PopMatters

Fontaines D.C.'s A Hero's Death is the follow-up to the acclaimed Dogrel, and it features some of their best work -- alongside some of their most generic.

60
Dork
There's still a lot to love, but it sounds like the band could do with a decent night's sleep and a couple of shots of caffeine before they think about album number three.
60
Upset

Production elements add a value that confirms these boys from the better land don’t need to pander to crowd swelling bangers akin to previous outings, instead, they’re ready to be the band that put noise to feeling. Though some singalong moments wouldn’t go amiss.

40
The Needle Drop

As far as modern post-punk goes, A Hero's Death is disappointingly run-of-the-mill.

Doublez
82

In the middle of the rush, the dubliners brilliantly managed to come up with another album in a short space of time that was just as punchy but particularly different. If Dogrel staged the scenery and the context, A Hero's Death is a deeper and more sophisticated work on several layers, focusing on something more abstract and mysterious.

Founded only 3 years ago, everything goes so fast for Fontaines D.C. Yet the band doesn't skip steps, on the contrary the band faces them determinedly, with ... read more

Doofy
93

If I told you a band’s sophomore album proved that they’d used up all their catchiest song ideas, all their most instant melodies and all their debut exuberance on the first record you’d probably surmise that this second release must’ve ended up a disappointment. Well dear reader, that all depends on what the band were left to work with.

In the case of Fontaines D.C. what remained was a soulful quality that was always there in the background on ‘Dogrel’ but ... read more

PipePanic
77

If there's something that 2020 was missing out on, it was Depression!

Fontaines D.C. are a group that I absolutely love what they have put out, including the in your face and fun as hell debut record 'Dogrel' that feels like if Joy Division was made in the modern age. They make post punk music for kids to both cry and punch walls to, and by god do they do it well. So, to say I was excited for this new album was an understatement! I was so goddamn hyped for this thing!

However, I did have my ... read more

AP__Music
80

Their debut album was fun, different, angry and witty. On the first listens I thought they’d skipped the difficult 2nd album and gone straight to the boring 3rd. Then it clicked with me – deep, clever, catchy and athematic and I love it. Huge developments from the ‘indie’ sounds, though they’re not quite Radiohead (less whale noises), more a Maccabees development – that’s never a bad thing! Still have some old magic on the title track but Dublin ... read more

79

A few standout songs such as 'A Hero's Death' and 'A Lucid Dream' mixed with some of the poorer songs from their discography being mostly from this album.

80

I need to give one more listen to the whole thing.
But it’s a clear step up for the production.
Some songs feel long, especially compared with the straightforwardness of the previous project.
Televised Mind is the best one here.

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Track List

1I Don't Belong
4:31
88
2Love Is the Main Thing
3:53
78
3Televised Mind
4:10
85
4A Lucid Dream
3:53
88
5You Said
4:36
84
6Oh Such a Spring
2:32
81
7A Hero's Death
4:18
89
8Living in America
4:57
78
9I Was Not Born
3:49
70
10Sunny
4:52
80
11No
5:08
81
Total Length: 46 minutes
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Added on: May 5, 2020