Masquerade - Cardinals Review

Cardinals by Steve Gullick

Cardinals have been circling something for a while now. With debut album Masquerade, they finally grab hold of it.

At a time when Irish bands are commanding global stages and reshaping the alternative landscape, Cardinals feel less like followers of a movement and more like a band carving out their own corner of it. There’s a deep sense of place running through this record. You can hear it in the melodies, in the phrasing, in the way the accordion threads through the guitars without ever feeling ornamental. It doesn’t scream tradition, but it carries it quietly.

From the opening moments of “She Makes Me Real”, there’s a confidence that feels earned. The guitars shimmer without feeling throwback, and Manning’s vocal balances vulnerability with steel. The production leaves room for everything to breathe, allowing tension to build naturally rather than forcing big moments.

A lot of Masquerade is defined by that patience. Cardinals let songs unfold at their own pace, gradually widening the frame before pulling everything back in. “St. Agnes” and “I Like You” bring melody to the front without sacrificing atmosphere, while “Anhedonia” and “Big Empty Heart” sit heavier, more internal, more bruised. The sequencing gives the album a shape that feels deliberate, shifting between brightness and shadow without losing cohesion.

Lyrically, there’s an openness that makes the record stick. Manning doesn’t over-explain or oversell the emotion. The themes of identity, doubt and devotion move through the album in fragments, which makes repeat listens rewarding. You catch different details each time, small phrases that linger longer than expected.

Masquerade doesn’t announce itself with bombast. It holds its ground. Cardinals sound grounded in where they’re from and clear about where they’re heading. In a year where Irish music continues to command international attention, this debut feels like another important chapter.

Catch Cardinals on their UK and Ireland tour next month: 

5th March 2026 - Belfast, Ulster Sports Club
6th March 2026 - Cork, St Luke's
7th March 2026 - Dublin, The Workman's Club
10th March 2026 - Bristol, The Exchange
11th March 2026 - London, The Garage
13th March 2026 - Manchester, Yes (Pink Room)
14th March 2026 - Newcastle, The Grove
15th March 2026 - Glasgow, King Tut's

Holo Boy - This Is Lorelei Album Review

This Is Lorelei | by Al Nardo

If the past year has proven anything, it’s that Nate Amos doesn’t sit still for long. Between touring his 2024 album Box for Buddy, Box for Star, releasing the critically acclaimed record It’s a Beautiful Place with his band Water From Your Eyes, Holo Boy arrives as a gentle look back. The album pulls together reworked songs from the past decade of Amos’ catalogue, originally scattered across Bandcamp and other early releases, he is able to reframe them with a confidence that wasn’t always there the first time around.

What’s striking is how cohesive it feels for a record built of loose parts. Rather than chasing novelty, Amos lets the songs breathe, leaning into fuller arrangements and stronger vocals that bring the writing to the surface. Where these earlier versions often hid behind murk or irony, these new takes feel warmer and more open, especially on tracks But You Just Woke Me Up and Dreams Away, which gain a new emotional steadiness without losing their low stakes melancholy. The humour is still there, but it now feels less like a deflection and more self-aware.

Holo Boy doesn’t push for big statements or reinvention, and that’s exactly why it works. There’s an ease to the way Amos inhabits these songs now, as if he’s finally comfortable letting them exist. Some moments drift by quietly, others stick around longer than expected, but the record’s strength lies in its restraint. It plays like an artist taking stock rather than starting over, finding something meaningful in revisiting old ideas with clearer eyes. In doing so, Holo Boy quietly cements Nate Amos as a songwriter who knows when to move forward and when to take stock.

Words by Harry Birleson

Listen to lead single ‘Holo Boy’ on YouTube

COSPLAY - Sorry Album Review

Three years on from the band’s sophomore record Anywhere but Here, Sorry return with their third genre-defying album Cosplay. Never ones to put themself into a box, the London five-piece sprinkle hints of trip hop, noise, and post-punk into their guitar and electronic driven indie rock. It’s an 11-track experience that goes from high energy, catchy hooks to confessional ballads that only furthers their uniqueness amongst the rest of the British indie scene. The band’s primary songwriters, frontwoman Asha Lorenz and co-lead vocalist and guitarist Louis O’Bryen, are joined on production credits by Speedy Wunderground’s Dan Carey.

The first of six singles released, Waxwing, a synth-driven, electronic banger accompanied by Lorenz’ dreamy and breathy vocals, puts forward the album’s themes of romance in a scathingly sarcastic way. A theme that stays consistent on the repetitively catchy opening track Echoes, and through the witty, irony-laced spoken vocals of Jetplane. The band swap out high energy with vulnerability and atmosphere on track Life In This Body with O’Bryen taking vocal lead over the beautiful, building instrumentation. The band closes the album with JIVE, a track that switches from sincerity to noise that gives one last burst of danceable energy before you find yourself questioning which track you’re going to end up looping for the coming days.

Cosplay is arguably the band’s most exciting and mature album yet. It’s as strange as it is addictive and feels like Sorry have put extra care into creating something that stands out not only in their own discography, but amongst the British indie and post-punk revival scene in general. Undoubtedly a record that will generate hype for future setlists and festival spots.

Words by Aella Bentley

Plan 76 - The Orchestra (For Now) Review

The Orchestra (For Now), Credit: Molly Boniface

Aptly named, Plan 76 follows its predecessor (Plan 75) with the same sense of purpose that has made The Orchestra (For Now) one of the most intriguing names to come out of London’s Windmill scene. This scene has been behind some of the UK’s most important names when it comes to guitar music in the past few years.

They share DNA with The Windmill scenes biggest export, Black Country, New Road, not through imitation but the same collective mindset. Theres a sense of something bigger being built throughout the EP, organised chaos that isn’t asking for approval. All seven members are tapped into that same strange wavelength, sharing the energy which gives Plan 76 it’s weight. It manages to be theatrical without being performative, you can tell this is a band that values tension over a resolution.

So, what is the plan? That’s kind of the point. Plan 76 doesn’t interest itself with explaining. There’s a deliberate unease that runs through the EP, where each track feels as if it’s seconds away from falling apart but somehow holds itself together. Impatient opens with soft vocals and a fragile guitar line, this combination lures you in before the track erupts into chaos. Hattrick folds violin and percussion into something you’d expect in a theatre rather than a rock song while Amsterdam buries tension beneath its upbeat pulse.

The Administration takes the tension scattered through this EP to its breaking point. It’s a slow unravelling of everything that makes Plan 76 so great. There’s something unsettling about how uncontrolled it feels, like the band are testing the limits of their own composure. Closing track Deplore You / Farmers Market feels like a natural release, letting all the pressure fade through a long spiralling finale. The kind of song that feels bigger than the room it’s in.

If there is a plan, it’s clearly working. The Orchestra (For Now) don’t need to explain what they’re doing, the EP speaks loud enough on its own.

The Orchestra (For Now) UK Headline Shows:

13th Nov - Sheffield, UK - Hallamshire Hotel,
14th Nov - Glasgow, UK - Hug & Pint,
15th Nov - Live at Leeds In the City, UK
16th Nov - Manchester, UK - YES Pink Room
18th Nov - London, UK - Scala
20th Nov - Bristol, UK - The Exchange
21st Nov - Southampton, UK - Heartbreakers
22nd Nov - Brighton, UK - Green Door Store
4th Dec - Cambridge, UK - Portland Arms

Plan 76 Cover Art

From The Pyre - The Last Dinner Party Review

The past couple of years have been a whirlwind for baroque pop breakthrough The Last Dinner Party. We’ve seen them go from London’s Windmill scene to a Mercury Prize nomination and a Number 1 album with Prelude to Ecstasy. Now, just over a year later, they rise from the flames with From the Pyre, a record that trades divine grandeur for something more grounded and cathartic.

If their debut was the coronation, From the Pyre is the sound of what comes after the crown is placed. The band still lean into their dramatic side, but there is a new sense of grit and self-awareness in their sound. Produced by Markus Dravs, known for his work with Florence and the Machine and Arcade Fire, the album builds on the ornate baroque pop of their debut, expanding it with rich textures and a sharp emotional focus.

The lead single This is the Killer Speaking opens with power and intent. It is theatrical yet unfiltered, driven by pulsing percussion and Abigail Morris’s commanding vocals. The Scythe continues this energy, mixing poetic fatalism and strong rhythm to create a track that encapsulates The Last Dinner Party at their best, a definite highlight on this record. Second Best captures their flair for melodrama and emotional sincerity, while Rifle stands out as one of the record’s most atmospheric moments. The closing track Inferno lives up to its name, finishing the album in a swirl of heat and release, a final burst of grandeur before it fades to ash.

Dravs’s production keeps everything slick and expressive, highlighting the band’s evolving musicianship. The Last Dinner Party expand on the baroque pop world they built on their debut, creating something confident and rich in detail. For a group once accused of being over-polished, this album feels alive and intentional. It may not excel in the same way as Prelude to Ecstasy, but it burns with conviction. From the Pyre proves that The Last Dinner Party have not only survived their own hype, they have reshaped it into something real and unique.

Watch The Last Dinner Party perform The Scythe Live From The Pyre