Fontaines D.C. have shared “Where Is Gone?” with Rosalía, adding another song to the preview of Dopamine Chamber before the album arrives on October 16. The collaboration sits eighth on the eleven-track running order and lasts five minutes and sixteen seconds. James Ford produced the record, the band’s fifth studio album, for release through XL Recordings.
The guest credit gives the song an obvious point of interest, but its place in the album is just as useful. “One Man” comes immediately before it and “You Miss Me” follows. Anyone arriving through Rosalía has a specific route into the sequence: return to the collaboration on Friday and hear the tracks on either side of it.
A song near the end, rather than the opening
Track eight leaves seven songs before the collaboration and three after it. That does not tell us how the transitions sound yet. It does show that “Where Is Gone?” is positioned well inside the record, rather than used as an opening introduction or a closing statement. We would resist making it the whole story of Dopamine Chamber before the other songs are available.
The current album preorder gives access to three tracks: “Marianne,” “Tongue” and “Where Is Gone?” The first two run three minutes and forty-five seconds and three minutes and thirteen seconds respectively. Together with the new song, that is twelve minutes and fourteen seconds of published preview material. Eight more titles remain on the album list. That is a meaningful limit to remember when forming an early impression.
Our report on Trivium’s twelve-track album preview made a similar distinction between the songs already released and the full record still to come. The practical point applies here too. A preview can be enjoyed on its own, while questions about the album’s pacing need the complete sequence. A prominent guest does not remove that distinction.
Dopamine Chamber follows 2024’s Romance. The new album’s physical options include CD, cassette and single-LP editions, plus a deluxe double LP cut at 45 rpm. The physical listings give shipping on or around October 16. That is a dispatch estimate, so a preorder parcel should not be assumed to arrive on the same day as the album’s digital release.
The band’s live calendar then moves to Lisbon’s MEO Arena on October 21, Madrid on October 22 and Barcelona on October 24. The Lisbon booking is five days after the album date. Fans going then have a short interval to explore the whole record before the show, though neither the tracklist nor Rosalía’s recording credit promises that she will join those concerts.
For us, the useful next listen is the album around “Where Is Gone?” Let the collaboration draw you in, then follow what precedes and follows it. That keeps the guest appearance in view without asking one song to stand for all eleven.
