Inhaler – ‘Cuts & Bruises’ album review: A sleek and sophisticated follow-up
Eli Hewson, Josh Jenkinson, Ryan McMahon, and Robert Keating formed Inhaler in 2015 when they were still teenagers in Dublin. The group had six long years of honing their craft before releasing their debut, It Won’t Always Be Like This, but their follow-up, Cuts & Bruises, has been a quick turnaround. On their sleek second album, the Irish four-piece pass the test and further establish their trademark sound.
It Won’t Always Be Like This made Inhaler the first Irish band in 13 years to earn a number-one with their debut album. While another chart-topping record is unlikely this time round because of the release date clashing with that of international pop star Pink, even if the project charts lower than their debut, Cuts & Bruises is an evolution of Inhaler, and the band expertly avoid catching a case of second-album syndrome.
Previously, during an interview with Far Out, the band surprisingly revealed they began work on Cuts & Bruises even before their first record was released. McMahon said: “I think it was the day after we actually put the first album to bed in November 2020, even before it was mixed. Eli sent the first demo, a song called ‘Just To Keep You Satisfied’. That’s all we could do was keep writing songs because there were no gigs.”
Over two years on from when Hewson initially sent his bandmates the demo of ‘Just To Keep You Satisfied’, the song acts as the opening track on Inhaler’s second album, which begins with Hewson singing: “Well, it’s early in the morning, The first day of the week, I couldn’t face the faces of my personality, Maybe I’ll be stronger, Maybe I’m a freak”. The track is coated in ’80s synths and already feels like it has been brewing for decades.
For the album, Inhaler remained with producer Anthony Genn, who was at the helm for their debut, and sonically, the two records are from nearby universes. Considering Inhaler immediately threw themselves into Cuts & Bruises after completing It Won’t Always Be Like This, this shouldn’t be a surprise, but the album is a strong progression from their debut.
The album’s opening four tracks, which include the singles ‘Love Will Get You There’ and ‘These Are The Days’, set Cuts & Bruises off to a startling opening. The decibels are brought down a few notches on the pop-infused ‘If You’re Gonna Break My Start’, and on the moving ‘A Perfect Storm’, which both allow Hewson to tug on the heartstrings. ‘Valentine’ is also crafted in a similarly tender mould.
After a deserved breather following the high-octane start, Inhaler raise the roof again with ‘Dublin In Ecstasy’. Interestingly, the track is one of the band’s earliest creations. “Our really early fans latched on to that song,” McMahon previously told Far Out. “We didn’t play it for around four years because we kept falling in and out of love with it, trying to write different versions of it.” Thankfully, Inhaler did resurrect ‘Dublin In Ecstasy’ from the dead as it’s brimming with energy and adds a necessary spark to Cuts & Bruises.
The record continues to blossom from that moment on as it segues into the powerful ‘When I Have Her On My Mind’, a song which contains an element of Bruce Springsteen mixed with Inhaler’s trademark power pop. The hypnotising ‘The Things I Do’ finds Hewson pleading “to fix this love of ours” before closer ‘Now You Got Me’ brings the album to an anthemic end.
Cuts & Bruises won’t make Inhaler the saviours of rock ‘n’ roll, but neither do they foster ambitions to be in that position. The Dublin band’s sound is closer to vintage pop than rock, but that doesn’t discredit their credentials and ability to make authentic music from the heart. Cynics will wrongly suggest Hewson’s famous father as a reason for the band’s success, but Eli is his own artist, and Inhaler’s journey is only beginning.
Cuts & Bruises is out on February 17th through Polydor.
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