Behind the Mask: Cardinals’ ‘Masquerade’ reveals the tenderness beneath the tension
On their debut album, the Irish band display the breadth of their sound and the strength of their voice.
★★★★½
Photo: Ariane Quignon-Message
Thanks to their punk romanticism, brooding theatricality and folk-leaning revelations, Cardinals’ distinct brand of goth-rock is no longer unfamiliar on the alt-rock scene. From support slots with the likes of NewDad and The Pogues to growing industry recognition, the Irish five-piece have generated the kind of buzz that future greats often flirt with in the years before glory — and Masquerade makes clear that Cardinals are already thinking beyond the usual constraints of a debut.
Rather than narrowing their focus, the band lean into contrast on their first full-length record, trusting their instincts to pull disparate moods into a single, sprawling whole. While some artists spend years working out how far their sound can stretch, Cardinals already understand how to translate ambition into cohesion. On Masquerade, there’s a palpable sense of a band stepping out fully from behind the curtain, shedding the disguises of their formative years and taking centre stage as themselves, spotlight and all.
Expansive in every sense of the word, the album unearths tales of dizzying romances, gritty characters pulled from the recesses of frontman Euan Manning’s mind, and moments of genuine contemplation. Opening with the drowsy lull of She Makes Me Real, the quintet plays with scale and vivacity as the track swells into full tempo, signalling the start of something and initiating a sense of momentum that never fully dissipates throughout the record.
From the staccato percussion of St Agnes to the taut drums and scratchy guitars on Over At Last, Cardinals balance restraint with release, allowing atmosphere and narrative to do as much work as volume. While soundscapes jump from waltzing wonders (Big Empty Heart) to whiplash swing (Anhedonia), what ultimately binds the album together is its shared emotional logic — the push and pull between vulnerability and defence, fury and tenderness, hope and doubt.
That duality is echoed in the album’s structure itself. In a nod to the band’s shared love of vinyl, a vivid A-side is set against a grittier B-side. This split brings the albums central theme of juxtaposition directly into the listening experience, reflecting the idea that a mask is often the inverse of the truth beneath it, and that it’s often easier to be cynical than optimistic.
With such strong framing, storytelling is able to come to the fore throughout the record, culminating in the stop-and-stare finale, As I Breathe — a real highlight among highlights. Its quiet acceptance of the world as it is, paired with a conscious decision to remain hopeful, feels both lyrically and sonically earned. Meanwhile, the choice to record Manning’s vocals in the studio stairwell lends a stark clarity to his delivery, adding a sense of exposure to lyrics that were already deeply soul-baring. Lines like “I need another name / That’s not hopeless or ashamed” and “Even as we fall / I have learned the world is small / And I proceed” land with disarming honesty, making As I Breathe a strong contender for Cardinals’ most memorable track yet.
In a world that insists on disguising itself as perfect, Masquerade offers refuge. Its unvarnished sincerity strips back the amour and reveals a band unafraid to sit with contradiction and contrast. Though it would be unrealistic to assume that Cardinals have everything figured out, they clearly know who they are right now, and that, in itself, feels like a rare achievement.
Masquerade is out February 13th via So Young Records.