Cardinals share romantic, accordion-led ‘I Like You’
Cork’s indie-rock force Cardinals know how to stew in their own anticipation.
Their debut record, Masquerade, comes with previous singles ‘Barbed Wire’, ‘Big Empty Heart’, ‘The Burning of Cork’, and the title track, with the latest track, ‘I Like You’, beginning with a heady, folk-esque slow build before exploding into something more commanding.
According to frontman Euan Manning, ‘I Like You’ is where Masquerade started, the spark from which everything else came into focus. They likely didn’t know which direction they’d go in, but the formation of ‘I Like You’ was the push they needed to fall into the beast that became their debut album.
As he explained, “After a very long period of not working on anything, we started and finished this some bright morning last February in our practice studio. It felt cathartic, a completely grounding moment after feeling slightly lost for months.”
He added, “The first lyric is stripped/paraphrased from the tune ‘My Funny Valentine’. I don’t think it was written by Chet Baker, but that’s the version we know.”
The song isn’t too different from the previous ones, each holding that heavy, slow build at its core before becoming something else entirely. However, ‘I Like You’ more openly bridges the gap between Cardinals’ folk and gothic rock influences, sitting somewhere in the swirl of that familiar Cure-esque rumination on devotion and love and something entirely fresh and different.
The tonal shifts are the most impressive, achieved through the lyrical simplicity and the different instrumental dynamics. The melancholic accordion sets the scene at the beginning before the vocals take charge, propelling it into a bigger, more commanding sound, cathartic as you feel the weight of yearning take root.
Cardinals have already been compared to many defining rock bands, including REM and Echo & the Bunnymen. Their ascent is more than clear, especially as many fresh Irish talents are currently entering the pool, ready to flex their creative muscles and show everything they have to offer. Cardinals no doubt have an excellent springboard in that regard, with a sound that feels familiar even if you’re only just encountering them for the first time.
However, as has been proven with ‘I Like You’ during live sets, there’s something else there, too. Something entirely its own thing, a sound that has its own unique voice, expanding and swelling at different twists and turns without compromising on its raw singer-songwriter core.
Never Miss A Beat
The Far Out New Music Newsletter
All the latest New Music from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.