Kodaline have released ‘Vultures’, the latest single from their fifth and final album ‘We Were Only Young’, due October 2 via Concord. Arriving while the Irish band are in Australia on their Farewell World Tour, the track finds them looking back at the pressures surrounding their career without allowing those memories to weigh the song down.
Instead, ‘Vultures’ comes with a buoyant folk-pop bounce, uplifting guitars and rousing percussion. Steve Garrigan approaches the subject with humour, reflecting on those moments when outside expectations and industry noise threatened to become a distraction. At its heart, the song is about sticking with your ambitions, blocking out the commentary and making it through on your own terms.
Backseat Mafia caught Kodaline at Sydney’s Enmore Theatre last night, where Garrigan, Vinny May, Mark Prendergast and Jason Boland thrilled the crowd on one of the Australian stops of their farewell tour. With the knowledge that this is the last time the band will make this journey together, the evening carried an extra significance without becoming overwhelmed by nostalgia.
‘Vultures’ adds another piece to ‘We Were Only Young’, an album designed as Kodaline’s closing chapter. The record moves between the acoustic sweep of ‘All I Ever Need Is You’, the piano and gospel touches of ‘Learn To Lose’ and the brighter pop of ‘It’s Not Over’, while ‘Get Me High’ pushes forward on layered harmonies. The darker ‘Who Will Save You Now’ opens the record before ‘The One For Me’ brings it to its conclusion.
The album arrives after a career stretching back more than a decade under the Kodaline name, taking the band from busking in Dublin to chart success, multi-platinum releases and billions of streams. Songs including ‘All I Want’, ‘High Hopes’ and ‘The One’ helped establish their knack for turning intimate emotions into choruses capable of filling theatres and arenas.
Rather than allowing Kodaline to gradually disappear, the four members have chosen to bring the band to a deliberate conclusion. That decision inevitably feeds into ‘We Were Only Young’, which looks at growth, love, connection and closure while allowing the group to consider what their years together have meant.
The Farewell World Tour is providing the other half of that goodbye. Kodaline began the run with huge outdoor performances in Ireland for 50,000 fans before heading through a sold-out Asian leg and on to Australia. European and UK dates will follow later this year as the band bring the final tour to a close.
For now, though, ‘Vultures’ refuses to make the ending sound mournful. Kodaline may be approaching the final stretch, but their latest single finds them looking back at the noise that surrounded the journey and choosing to have some fun with it before the curtain comes down.
