Hotly tipped Kinsale band Cardinals have announced their debur album Masquerade and released the title track.

The ten-song album was recorded with producer Shrink at RAK Studios, London during the summer and will be released next February on So Young Records.

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The five-piece act, who are made up of Euan Manning (guitar and vocals), Oskar Gudinovic (guitar), Aaron Hurley (bass), Finn Manning (accordion), and Darragh Manning (drums), have been called “the next great guitar band to emerge from Ireland” by Rolling Stone UK and have also won praise from NME and Stereogum.

Are Cork act Cardinals the best new band in Ireland?

Masquerade is released on 13 February, 2026. The track listing is: She Makes Me Real, St. Agnes, Masquerade, I Like You, Over At Last, Anhedonia, Barbed Wire, Big Empty Heart, The Burning Of Cork, As I Breathe

Speaking about the band’s debut album, frontman Euan Manning says, “Something the record looks at is peeling back the ‘masquerade’ or the facade we all put up. The curtain is pulled and cynicism takes its place – it’s really easy to be cynical and far harder to be hopeful and genuine.

“We’ve learnt this through playing and touring but you can’t be a total cynic if you’re making music or films or whatever it is, making art forces you to dig deeper than that protective layer.

“Stripping it back is painful, you can find things you’re really not proud of but it also lends itself to a sort of acceptance that can’t be attained if you don’t allow yourself that vulnerability. A lot of the themes and ideas in the album come from that place.”

Cardinals supported Fontaines D.C. in Finsbury Park, London earlier in the and also supported Wunderhorse in Dublin recently.

They returned to the US last week to support The Pogues in Boston and remain Stateside currently for the last of a string of headline dates there before returning to the UK to headline the So Young tour with Mên An Tol and Pebbledash later this month.

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