Track of the Day: Hawke The Band, 'Memories'

The hotly-tipped Dublin outfit Hawke The Band follow up dazzling 2023 - from being tapped to open for Aslan at Iveagh Gardens to a slew of lauded performances - with a heart-rending number drawn from their travels across Iberia.

'Memories' centres on the band's journey across the south of Spain to source inspiration and material for new music. There, they met an old man at the local market who was asking vendors if they remembered his wife, telling them about her smile, her laugh and the beautiful times they spent together. The man went on to tell them she had been victim of "the horrible disease Dementia" and that she was dying. Thus, he strolls the local market, trying to relive the memories they'd made that she no longer remembers.

The band mention that "the contrast between heartbreak and excitement in his voice when he realised other people remembered her, inspired us to write 'Memories'".

With alt-pop resonance, the track fuses several images in the background: The Beatles' 'Penny Lane' booming through speakers, a picture of the couple in their early days where the young woman wears a polka-dot headband and the man (now much older) trying to relive the warm market days.

It's a song that's by turns heart-rending and heartwarming for it's declaration of love despite the transience of togetherness.