Fontaines D.C. reach a new high with their latest single, a euphoric hymn to youth and a plea for hope in an uncertain world – It’s Amazing To Be Young.

I could write and write about how much I love Fontaines and how much I love this new song. I’d be saying nothing I haven’t said before. But I’m not sure I like this trend for videos that break up the song itself.

As impressive as Luna Carmoon’s mini-movie might be (and it’s a thing of beauty, but it’s also seven-and-a-half minutes long), what I really want is to hear the song in all its glorious three-and-a-half minute entirety.

Especially when the song is as good as this.

For me the Dublin band hit a new high with their fourth album Romance and now the first time I saw them in a tiny pub in Camden seems a long time ago. Back then, in December 2018, it would have been hard to predict they’d be headlining festivals seven years later. Or that their music would evolve to this point.

A euphoric paean to youth, it’s just so joyfully optimistic and anthemic that I just can’t stop playing it – even though I am far from the target audience for those lyrics. Then again, there’s more to the song than there seems: it was written in the presence of guitarist Carlos O’Connell’s newborn child, making it more of a lullaby, infused with a sense of hope for the a bright future.

As bassist Conor Deegan puts it: “The feeling of hope a child can give is profound and moving, especially for young men like us. That sense of wanting to create a world for them to grow up in happily. It’s a feeling that fights against the cynicism that can often overtake us in the modern world.

“So we wanted to declare which side we were on – it really is amazing to be young. We are still free, and want to make that feeling spread. We want to protect it for the others around us, and maybe in doing that, can also help protect it for ourselves.”

It’s a tough time to be young, in an uncertain world, so it’s thrilling to feel the optimism of Fontaines, and the song’s theme is echoed in Carmoon’s video, with its echoes of the film Santa Sangre.

“I feel like we’re living in this weird time where romantic love is being pushed to the side, and sex and love is unvirtuous and no longer what people want to see,” she says. “I don’t believe that at all. I love that these two people have fallen in love with themselves, and I wanted to see them fall in love with each other.”