{"id":403025,"date":"2026-01-12T13:39:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:39:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403025\/"},"modified":"2026-01-12T13:39:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-12T13:39:11","slug":"cardinals-have-found-the-value-in-vulnerability-the-cover","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/403025\/","title":{"rendered":"Cardinals have found the value in vulnerability | The Cover"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"NME\"<\/a>\"NME\"<\/a><\/p>\n

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\u00a9 2026\u00a0NME Networks<\/a>, a part of\u00a0Caldecott Music Group<\/a>. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n

Cardinals have found the value in vulnerability | The Cover | NME.com\"CardinalsCardinals (2026), photo by Xander LewisEmerging from Cork with a debut album that embraces emotional ambiguity and granular storytelling, Cardinals won\u2019t be pigeonholed as just another Irish band<\/p>\n

Words by\u00a0Huw Baines<\/a><\/p>\n

12th January 2026\"CardinalsWeekly Poster Giveaway<\/p>\n

Tell us why you love the artist and have a chance to win a free poster!\u00a0Shout-Outs are only available on mobile devices.<\/p>\n

Euan Manning looks up at the ceiling, momentarily struggling to understand his younger self. Framed in a Zoom window a matter of hours after getting back to Cork following the final bout of touring in a busy 2025, Cardinals<\/a>\u2019 frontman eventually admits: \u201cI\u2019m not sure what I meant by that.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s just been put to him that, the last time he spoke with NME<\/a>, he said his plans for the band included making a debut album that might one day be considered a classic, both on its own merits and as a representation of the city that reared them. Cardinals\u2019 first LP is set for release next month, following up a string of singles that marked them out as a special prospect by rapidly evolving from precocious indie-pop into something wounded, widescreen and romantic. So how does he feel about that mission statement now?<\/p>\n

\"CardinalsCardinals on The Cover of NME. Credit: Xander Lewis for NME<\/p>\n

\u201cLike, what is a classic album?\u201d Manning wonders. \u201cClassic albums are different for different people. I don\u2019t know whether it\u2019s a classic or not \u2013 it\u2019s not up to me. But I\u2019m really proud of us. I\u2019m really proud of the record. Personally, in my heart, it\u2019s a classic. It\u2019ll always be there for me, whether I\u2019m in love with it or if I\u2019m hating it.\u201d<\/p>\n

These are the words of someone who has grown up and perhaps become more thoughtful over the past couple of years, a reality that the darkly emotive, melodically incisive \u2018Masquerade\u2019 reflects at every opportunity. Manning\u2019s mix of granular storytelling and stark imagery has only become more deftly realised since the release of their self-titled EP in 2024, with intuitive guitar flourishes and surprising rhythmic shifts decorating nuanced, adventurous indie-rock songs that steer clear of easy answers.<\/p>\n

\"EuanEuan Manning of Cardinals. Credit: Xander Lewis for NME<\/p>\n

Whether they\u2019re turning over the fractures in a relationship or the smouldering embers of political disquiet, Cardinals are steadfast in one of their foundational aims: to capture \u201ca whole spectrum of feeling\u201d in the band\u2019s music, shying away from nothing. \u201cThe EP was wanting to be a pop-noise band \u2013 fun songs that we liked,\u201d Manning reflects. \u201cIn evolving and writing the record, the realisation I came across was that vulnerability might be the only valuable thing when it comes to creating art. If you can keep that honesty throughout your music, that\u2019s what\u2019s going to make it good.\u201d<\/p>\n

That these soul-searching creative leaps were able to occur while the rest of their world was being tilted off its axis \u2013 the buzz generated by their early work thrusting the band from local club shows to a first headline tour and eye-catching slots opening for Kings of Leon<\/a> and Fontaines D.C.<\/a> \u2013 is likely testament to the fact that growing up together is something Cardinals have always done.<\/p>\n

\"FinnFinn Manning of Cardinals. Credit: Xander Lewis for NME<\/p>\n

Euan\u2019s brother, Finn, plays accordion in the band, and his cousin, Darragh, is the drummer. Guitarist Oskar Gudinovic and bassist Aaron Hurley, meanwhile, are school friends from back home in Kinsale. When Euan first moved to Cork in the autumn of 2022, he was just another college kid without much to do, spending hours wandering and thinking. \u201cI didn\u2019t have anywhere to go, so I was always in the city,\u201d he recalls. Everyone else was in a similar boat. The band came together as those old faces started to look at home in new surroundings, a dynamic that hasn\u2019t left them. Years later, those formative relationships have been a grounding force as they\u2019ve spent their early twenties on the road, developing as musicians and changing as individuals under the glare of stage lights. \u201cThe support appears when people need it,\u201d Manning notes. \u201cYou learn when to leave someone alone, and when you can have a bit of craic with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a piece, \u2018Masquerade\u2019 isn\u2019t short on this kind of emotional intelligence. It\u2019s telling that, alongside Lou Reed<\/a>, Shane MacGowan<\/a> and authors such as Kevin Barry, Patrick McCabe and Frank O\u2019Connor, Manning cites Elliott Smith<\/a> as an influence, given the way he leaves space for the listener to find something of themselves in his writing, providing an outlet by embracing both thematic ambiguity and narrative specifics. He\u2019s happy for people to fall in alongside the narrator on \u2018Barbed Wire\u2019<\/a> as they walk \u201cfrom City Hall to George\u2019s Quay\u201d, but what they turn over in their minds as their boots meet the Cork pavement is for them to decide.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t write hit pieces. I write stories\u201d \u2013 Euan Manning<\/p>\n

\u201cSongwriters get, \u2018Who\u2019s this about, your ex-girlfriend?\u2019 Scriptwriters, painters don\u2019t,\u201d Manning points out. \u201cI always felt that was unfair. It disregards the songwriter as a writer \u2013 like you\u2019re just opening your heart and pouring it out. As much as this comes from a personal place, I like to think these aren\u2019t literally about me or any of the lads. I don\u2019t write hit pieces. I write stories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Often, those stories hum with anxiety, like there\u2019s a current running beneath their excavations of self and place. Manning traces that back to the real world and Cardinals\u2019 lives being sublimated into their drive to make a record. \u201cThe overarching feeling was we need to do this,\u201d he says. \u201cWe need to make the record. It has to happen, by whatever means necessary, whatever it takes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"DarraghDarragh Manning of Cardinals. Credit: Xander Lewis for NME<\/p>\n

There is a visceral sense of that urgency in the way Manning\u2019s voice bends and contorts with desperation as he asks \u201cWhat are you waiting for?\u201d in the title track<\/a>, its plea becoming fuel for the next hook, the next riff. \u201cIt can be a lot to take on board \u2013 necessity is a really powerful feeling, and I think you can hear it,\u201d he says. \u201cIt adds to the uneasiness.\u201d<\/p>\n

This gnawing ambition also creates some friction when Cardinals are viewed within the context of their position as an Irish rock<\/a> band at a remarkable point in the shared history of Irish rock bands, with Fontaines, Sprints<\/a>, the Murder Capital<\/a>, NewDad<\/a>, Gurriers<\/a> et al continuing to thrive in the spotlight. As serious as they are about being heard, Manning is equally leery of being swept into a feeding frenzy in the post-Nirvana<\/a> tradition, with Ireland\u2019s distinct scenes and sounds eventually moulded into a formless nothing by outside hands. \u201cIt does sometimes feel like there are hawks circling, looking for younger ones that might have a bit of ambition,\u201d he says. \u201cLike, keep your wits about you.<\/p>\n

\"OskarOskar Gudinovic of Cardinals. Credit: Xander Lewis for NME<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always been good Irish music,\u201d he continues. \u201cIt\u2019s had a commercial surge now, which is great. People are definitely benefiting, but I don\u2019t like to see us lumped in. Aside from the fact that we\u2019re Irish, I don\u2019t see we have much in common musically with a lot of our contemporaries. We\u2019ve always been pretty insular as a band. We want to do our own thing, which in a way is not nice, because I think there\u2019s value in community. It would be nice to be really friendly with all these Irish bands, always hanging out, but I don\u2019t think it\u2019s in our nature.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardinals\u2019 songs can feel like a rejection of the commodification of Irish culture, presenting a vision of the country that is conflicted and complex. On \u2018Masquerade\u2019, the lyric sheet is home to broken Catholic congregations and the threat of bloody-knuckled violence, while even their use of Finn\u2019s accordion is pointed, with the trad instrument\u2019s bittersweet melodic voice eventually recast as a needling, taunting thing on \u2018Big Empty Heart\u2019. It\u2019s a world away from an influencer gamely trying to split the G on TikTok<\/a>. \u201cIf it can be digestible, then it can be commercial, and you can make loads of money off it,\u201d Manning observes. \u201cIt\u2019s like \u2018We\u2019ll take the Guinness, the Aran jumpers, but the political side of it, we\u2019re a lot less into that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AaronAaron Hurley of Cardinals. Credit: Xander Lewis for NME<\/p>\n

Pushing back further against that sanitised reality is their recent single \u2018The Burning of Cork\u2019<\/a>, a squalling track that obliquely frames an episode from the Irish War of Independence, when the Auxiliaries led retaliation to an IRA ambush by setting the city ablaze, against the horrors unfolding in Gaza. Its repetition of \u201cagain and again and again\u201d is abrasive, almost nihilistic. \u201cThere\u2019s a strong link, I believe, between what happened in Ireland and what\u2019s happening in Gaza, but it\u2019s more extreme over there,\u201d Manning says. \u201cThat song is about a few different things, but if people are going to pick up on something, that\u2019s a good way of looking at it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the spring, Cardinals will start touring again, taking songs born and raised in Cork out into the world to see how they fare in new surroundings. Before that, Manning will spend a few weeks working his way back into being at home, taking stock of the small things that add up to big changes in a place\u2019s character. Then, he\u2019ll doubtless weigh them against the reflection he sees in the mirror each morning. \u201cThe city moves on without you,\u201d he says. \u201cMaybe I\u2019m starting to lose a bit of how connected I was when I first came here, when I was young. I\u2019m trying to come to terms with that.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

But, as he seeks to do so, there are others in Cork and cities like it across the world living Manning\u2019s old life, finding their way, figuring it out. Cardinals feel like the perfect band for that moment, when some things fall into place, and others fall apart. If \u2018Masquerade\u2019 is to be remembered as a classic by anyone, anywhere, it\u2019ll start there. \u201cAs soon as the record is out, it\u2019s no longer mine,\u201d he says. \u201cPeople say that all the time, but I think it\u2019s true.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cardinals\u2019 \u2018Masquerade\u2019 is out on February 13 via So Young Records.<\/p>\n

Listen to Cardinals\u2019 exclusive playlist to accompany The Cover below on Spotify or on Apple Music here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Words: Huw Baines
Photography: Xander Lewis
Photography Assistance: Lilah Culliford
Glam\/Styling: Olivia Creighton
Label: So Young Records<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The world’s defining voice in music and pop culture: breaking what’s new and what’s next since 1952. When…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":403026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[88,216],"class_list":{"0":"post-403025","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-music"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=403025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/403025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/403026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=403025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=403025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=403025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}