Kodaline - We Were Only Young

An experienced band bows out with one final record.

Irish group Kodaline have produced a respectable catalog over their time together, culminating in their signature 2013 hit “All I Want”. Now, though, with the band’s retirement on the horizon, the quartet have created their final album, We Were Only Young. The twelve-track LP is gentle and emotional, and carries a real sense of wistfulness and finality throughout fitting for it as the band’s final release. However, it is not without flaws.

The album opens with “Who Will Save You Now”, a track whose gradual, rolling buildup helps establish that slight pit in the listener’s stomach that sets up the overall melancholy of the album’s atmosphere. It’s not always overtly present, but it’s always there, sometimes just framing the tracks in the background, sometimes more obvious. Some of the sadder moments on the album do come off a bit cheesy, unfortunately, exaggerating things slightly in a way that ends up lessening their impact.

The album’s atmosphere and instrumentation is sadly not particularly unique – the production and the vocals are overly polished and sweet a lot of the time, not leaving as much room for anything singular to shine through. There are some songs and that do have some special charm to them – like the title track, “We Were Only Young”, “Learn To Lose” or “Without You” – but, for the most part, the album does feel like it could’ve been created by pretty much any band.

The lyrics don’t improve much on this generalness either, unfortunately – the topical matter is rather repetitive throughout, consisting of pretty surface-level songs about breakups for the most part, without going about it in a particularly novel way. The writing, like the instrumentation, also has its more engaging moments, with some good, well-executed wording, but overall, it doesn’t go into many specifics or leave the listener with any particularly memorable imagery. 

Overall, while We Were Only Young isn’t an undignified ending for Kodaline, it’s not exactly a brilliant one either. The album doesn’t do anything clearly wrong in any of its musical facets, but, outside of a handful of highlight tracks sprinkled throughout the tracklist, also doesn’t do anything impressive beyond the basics of something that sounds vaguely pleasant and inoffensive to listen to.

5.8/10