Album Review: Kodaline, We Were Only Young

Kodaline began playing together as teenagers in Swords, with Steve Garrigan, Vinny May and Mark Prendergast’s roots stretching back to the 21 Demands outfit, before Jason Boland joined and Kodaline emerged in 2012.

Debut album In A Perfect World topped the Irish charts and reached No.3 in Britain, while 2015’s Coming Up For Air also hit No.1 at home as well as the UK top 5. Politics Of Living in 2018 embraced glossy pop production, while 2020’s One Day At A Time returned to a simpler, more familiar sound.

Kodaline did not invent the route from Ireland to the international stage, but they became one of the clearest examples of how a melodic, arena-minded Irish pop-rock band could find a global audience.

Why the history lesson? Because We Were Only Young is to be the fifth and final Kodaline album - the band announced their split last year, saying they wanted to make one final record and finish properly. The orchestral, piano-led title track looks wistfully-but-fondly in the rearview, while ‘Who Will Save You Now’ veers into darker terrain.

‘Without You’ is a beautiful love song written by frontman Steve Garrigan for his wife on their wedding day, while ‘Vultures’ is a damn-the-begrudgers folk-rocker. The album closes with ‘The One For Me’, which marvellously bookends their swansong record.

8/10