Album Review: Kodaline - ‘We Were Only Young’
Goodbyes are never easy, let alone when you’re a band who have been the soundtrack for an entire generation of indie pop. For Kodaline, getting the final chapter and last farewell right was important not just for closing the door as a band but as a way to give back to the fans who have given them so much. With ‘We Were Only Young’, they bow out in the same way they started: four lads from Swords Dublin making music that makes you feel something.
Reflective, nostalgic and carrying a wistfulness apt for any band’s victory lap, it is an album that knows what its artist does best. Kodaline’s song writing and artistry has always been rooted in emotional transparency and the choice of stillness over spectacle. ‘We Were Only Young’ is able to feel cinematic and sweeping but in a way that never loses sight of its vulnerability; the very thing that made us all fall in love with them in the first place.
The album opens with ‘Back To Me’ which with its isolated vocals and unresolving melodies feels like what many goodbyes start out as. Fuelled by a quiet desperation and the need to say everything you can before it’s too late, it firmly establishes what everyone already knew would be an emotional tone. The way the lyrics fall into one another and the instrumentals fade out towards the end are an intriguing choice because of the implications they have for the rest of the album. They suggest unfinished business, someone’s recognition that they have to close the door but not quite knowing how to turn the key behind them. There is no ‘right’ way to say goodbye and Kodaline realise that the best they can do is say their piece from the get go and hope it finds somewhere soft to land.
Contrary to what you might have expected from an album seeking to find the right way to say farewell, Kodaline inject ‘We Were Only Young’ with a lot of joy and hope. ‘Get Me High’, much like the title would suggest, is a real feel-good track that is about finding the people who make everything in life better. Towing the line between feeling like a chilled out love song and something you could dance along to in the kitchen at the end of a long night, there’s something about its pacing and instrumentation that oozes warmth and assurance. ‘Vultures’ similarly is a welcome burst of energy, a reminder that this is the sound of a band who are still enjoying themselves. Compared to the darker, more emotionally weighty moments on the album, it is decidedly uncomplicated and a good reminder that amidst the entanglement of feelings and conflict and uncertainty there is space to let the light in.
Kodaline have long been a band who have been able to capture something in the deeply personal, often intimate moments that makes them feel universally resonant. ‘Without You’, likely will go down in their discography as one of the most personal and heartfelt tracks, especially with the knowledge that Steve Garrigan wrote it to perform to his wife at their wedding. The beauty of the song lies in its simplicity and rawness, pondering how different things would be if you didn’t have that one person in your life who makes it all worth it. Soft vocals sung straight from the heart complemented by simple guitar - Kodaline’s bread and butter.
To bookend their swansong, ‘The One For Me’ closes things out with a sense of calm. By the time it comes around, the overall tone of the album feels less like a goodbye forever and more a recognition and appreciation of time’s inevitable movement forwards. Neither sad nor dramatic, the feeling it conveys is one of acceptance. Nostalgia, but not necessarily the overly rose tinted kind. It states firmly that ‘We Were Only Young’ is not simply an album about endings, but instead about having been on a journey worthy of looking back on.
There will always be something inherently bittersweet about listening to a band’s final album. Each lyric, chord and reflective glance backwards carries more weight. For Kodaline, the feeling is impossible to escape so instead is embraced. Returning to the melodic, emotionally direct song writing that has defined them for all these years, ‘We Were Only Young’ is a celebration of everything they have been and all they have achieved together. And there is still much to be achieved, particularly with the farewell tour set to kick off in November. Of the 5 UK dates in December, the most special will no doubt be the final show which is at home at the 3Arena in Dublin. Tickets are limited but still available and given that it could well be the last chance any of us get, they will no doubt sell out soon.
Words by Kirsty Thomson
