ALBUM REVIEW: Kodaline – Coming Up For Air
“Coming up for air” is Irish band Kodaline’s sophomore album. After a couple years of touring with “In a Perfect world” the band decided it was time to back into the studio to make a new record and only after 3 months the record was done. while even the band admits that it was a bit rushed the end product turned out pretty good.
Kodaline consists of Steve Garrigan (Lead vocals, rhythm guitar, mandolin, harmonica, keyboard), Mark Prendergast (Lead guitar, backing vocals, keyboard), Vinny May (Drums, percussion) and Jason Bolan (Bass guitar, backing vocals).
My first initial reaction after playing the whole album through was that, while I enjoyed it, the sound of some of the songs reminded me way too much of other bands especially Coldplay. Steve’s vocal on “The One” & “Everything Works Out in the End” sound almost identical to that of Chris Martin.
My two favourite songs on this record would have to be “Coming Alive” “Human Again” and “Play The Game.” These songs had a different vibe from the rest of the album, they seemed to be more energetic and to be honest were quite catchy. Honorable mention to “Love Will Set You Free”
Coming Up for Air is what I would call an experimental record. While the half of the songs seem to go together the others do not and even though all the songs do no go together that doesn’t mean that it a bad album. In fact I like how some songs sounded a bit different, it had me guessing to what could be next.
This album will have you singing woah-oo’s for a good chunk of the songs.
I can truly say that Kodaline is a very talented band after seeing them a couple of times, but this record lacks what I’ve seen on stage. Overall I think the album is actually pretty good, but in my opinion “In a Perfect World” was just a bit better. If you are a fan of Kodaline or even Coldplay I would suggest you check it out, but if this is you first time hearing of them, definitely check out their first album.
Check out the single “Honest” Below
Rating 3.5/ 5
Track list:
Honest
The One
Autopilot
Human Again
Unclear
Coming Alive
Lost
Ready
Better
Everything Works Out in the End
Play the Game
Love Will Set You Free
Kodaline will be playing The Danforth Music Hall April 16th & 17th as part of “ Ones to watch North American Tour” Presented by Skype.
Coming up for Air was released February 10, 2015 by Sony Music Entertainment Canada.
[Review written by Stephanie Puccinelli]
