Fontaines DC earned critical respect from American indie music publications for their 2019 debut album Dogrel and for their new one, A Hero’s Death. While they are a very good band, they haven’t exactly dominated the charts on this side of the Atlantic: Their lone chart appearance in the US was a No. 14 peak for Dogrel on Billboard‘s Top Heatseekers tally.
That said, the Irish group is much more appreciated in the UK, where Dogrel peaked at No. 9 on the charts. Now, the band has a shot at going No. 1 in the UK with A Hero’s Death. Taylor Swift’s Folklore is also vying for the top spot on the August 7 chart, and it might be surprising to American music fans, but the race between Swift and Fontaines DC is actually really, really close.
The Official Charts Company, which is responsible for the official UK charts, publishes its weekly rankings on Fridays. Ahead of then, though, they offer a mid-week update. On Monday’s update, Fontaines DC led the tally while Swift was in third, after Folklore debuted in the top spot on the chart dated July 31.
However, it looks like Swift and her team are making moves to try and keep Folklore on top for a second consecutive week. EMI, Swift’s UK record label, brought the CD release of Folklore forward to August 4, presumably in an effort to keep the album at No. 1.
To compare both artists’ global reach, Fontaines DC currently boast about 961,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, which is a big number that’s far from paltry. However, Swift has about 46.1 million monthly listeners, which is nearly 50 times as many and 17th in the world.