A Hero’s Death by Fontaines D.C.

A Hero's Death, the second album from Irish post-punk band Fontaines D.C., came out through Partisan Records on 31 July 2020, less than 18 months after their debut Dogrel. Dan Carey produced it, and instead of doubling down on the jittery, nerve-shredding rush of that first record, the band drifts somewhere hazier and more psychedelic, taking cues from, among others, the Beach Boys.

That doesn't mean they've gone soft. Grian Chatten still delivers his lines with a flat, hypnotic insistence, and the title track is a wiry, repetitive chant that grows more stirring with every pass. Around it the guitars smear and swirl into dreamy, woozy shapes. It debuted at number two in the UK after a much-publicised chart race with Taylor Swift's Folklore, and it picked up nominations for the Grammy for Best Rock Album, the Brit for International Group, the Choice Music Prize and an Ivor Novello.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.