{"id":294174,"date":"2026-02-16T14:25:24","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:25:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294174\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T14:25:24","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T14:25:24","slug":"irelands-next-great-hope-deliver-scorched-truths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/294174\/","title":{"rendered":"Ireland\u2019s next great hope deliver scorched truths"},"content":{"rendered":"

To promise a \u201cclassic\u201d debut album<\/a> two years before it arrives requires a special kind of ballsy gumption, but that\u2019s what Ireland\u2019s latest great bright hope Cardinals<\/a> set out for on \u2018Masquerade\u2019. In the time since, there\u2019s been no cause to doubt them.<\/p>\n

The Cork five-piece have come a long way since early festival spots and support gigs with the likes of fellow future guitar icon countrymen Fontaines D.C.<\/a>, with frontman Grian Chatten<\/a> anointing them \u201chis favourite Irish band\u201d. Along the way the NME 100 alumni<\/a> and recent Cover stars<\/a> have whetted our appetite with a solid self-titled EP and string of woozy shoegaze and skull-rattling agitated indie. Does \u2018Masquerade\u2019 make good on their offer?<\/p>\n

Getting old-school with a proper side A and side B is a good start. Opener \u2018She Makes Me Real\u2019 captures Cardinals\u2019 knack for sweet earworm post-punk-pop with a scratched and tortured underbelly where as good as it may sound, \u201cit hurts beyond belief\u201d. Choppy indie with folky accordion flourishes drive festival banger \u2018St Agnes\u2019, the self-reckoning of the slow-burning title track and the direct, open-hearted \u2018I Like You\u2019. \u201cDon\u2019t change your hair for me, if you still care for me,\u201d croons frontman Euan Manning with a knowing simplicity, before the twitching cacophony of \u2018Over At Last\u2019 collapses into side B.<\/p>\n

This is where things get real gnarly. \u201cI know I\u2019m not the only one who suffers,\u201d spits Manning on the fire and brimstone of \u2018Anhedonia\u2019, bristling with the violence and anxiety that unpicks the darkness of the second half. \u201cAnd I can hardly breathe, alcohol and ecstasy, and Aperol and THC,\u201d the frontman observes on \u2018Barbed Wire\u2019 \u2013 a noxious tour of his hometown \u2013 while the shadow of Robert Smith<\/a> dances over the gothy doubt-riddled love song of \u2018Big Empty Heart\u2019: \u201cAs my legs are blown to bits and I always feel shit, well with you I kind of feel OK\u201d.<\/p>\n

Throughout, there\u2019s a nervous energy that speaks to life in 2026, never more so than on nauseous despair of album highlight \u2018The Burning Of The Cork\u2019, reflecting the past atrocities committed by British forces in Ireland with the ongoing horror in Gaza; a brutal history that repeats \u201cagain and again and again\u201d. \u2018As I Breathe\u2019 fittingly ends on something of a sigh rather than a bang; taking a drag and making peace with existing on the best terms you can, given everything: \u201cStill my heart is pure, makes me hate it all the more, I know how weak I am\u201d.<\/p>\n

Is \u2018Masquerade\u2019 a classic? Time will tell, and Cardinals have demonstrated the potential to grow into something more special. At the very least, they\u2019ve made a record that\u2019s sadly but beautifully in tune with these times and the scars of where they\u2019re from. This is the truth of a band who have no other choice but to do this.<\/p>\n

Details<\/p>\n

\"joji<\/p>\n

Record label: So Young
\nRelease date: February 13, 2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"To promise a \u201cclassic\u201d debut album two years before it arrives requires a special kind of ballsy gumption,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[146,85,131,46,409],"class_list":["post-294174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-indie","tag-israel","tag-music"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}