As the dust dances in the cold silver glow that spills out across an empty hall, swaying half here and half forgotten, Cardinals play out their latest single, ‘Big Empty Heart’. The melody spins gently on this final waltz, and the Cork band weaves threads of Irish trad textures, reverb- drenched shoegaze, and ‘60s pop grandeur.
A picked bassline fractures the silence, opening the wound that ‘Big Empty Heart’ bleeds from. It crashes forward with intricate drums, colossal swells of reverb-laden guitars, and the accordion’s mournful cry weaving in and out of it all. This comes together into a sprawling dirge for a love sharpened by absence and bruised by regret. Frontman Euan Manning calls it “a love song written from beyond the grave,” and his voice emerges cold, quivering, and folded tight with secrets and ghosts, carrying an unsent letter that still burns the hands that hold it.
Now championed by the likes of Grian Chatten and Belfast’s Kneecap, Cardinals prepare to carry ‘Big Empty Heart’ from the melody guitarist Oskar Gudinovic dreamed up on a Korg at twelve to the roaring crowd of 45,000 as they open for Fontaines D.C. at Finsbury Park this July.
Photo by Emilyn Cardona
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Issue Fifty-Five features Model/Actriz, YHWH Nailgun, The Orchestra (For Now), Westside Cowboy, Car Seat Headrest, Real Farmer, School Fair, Elias Rønnenfelt, feeble little horse, Kissing On Camera, Pooneh Ghana and Rhi Dancey.
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