Kodaline

Perhaps there is no better way to describe Kodaline’s music than by simply pointing to the placid mountain lake adorning their debut album, In a Perfect World. Just like that image, the Irish band’s indie rock manages to feel both profoundly tranquil and soul-crushingly majestic. It is a sound that took time to evolve. Coming together in 2005, the young Dubliners originally called themselves 21 Demands, and their punchy dance-rocker “Give Me a Minute” topped Irish charts in 2007. They adopted the Kodaline moniker in 2012 to coincide with the unveiling of a new, more mature sound, one drawing inspiration from the more ethereal moments in the Coldplay and U2 catalogues. At the same time, gentle acoustic textures and shadings of soul and gospel music were incorporated into international hits like “High Hopes”, “Love Like This” and “All I Want”, placing considerable distance between them and their influences. Lead singer Steve Garrigan doesn’t just possess an impassioned falsetto; he sounds like a choirboy with a voice capable of floating to the very apex of a cathedral’s ceiling. These qualities remain the anchors of Kodaline’s music even when they branch out, as on the 2016 hit “Raging”, a collaboration with house producer Kygo, and the more ambitious Politics of Living, a full-length that pushed the band deep into the age of gleaming synthesisers and automated grooves.