Inhaler – Cuts & Bruises Review

Sophomore albums are an impressionable period for a band or artist maintaining a fresh image. Inhaler have their work cut out for them but rise to the challenge Cuts & Bruises presents. Frontman Elijah Hewson has already described these tracks as “coming-of-age” standards, but few come of age in the footsteps of Bono or form their own successful band and feature on FIFA soundtracks. Bomb whistles flow into a synth-formed opener. Maybe it is Just To Keep You Satisfied, as the track would suggest. Inhaler presents themselves as every day. Reasonable doubts and hopes their audiences can not only connect to but understand are right there. Cuts & Bruises show those temporary wounds and make expansive, slick tracks of them.

Nicely paced moments are worked over on Cuts & Bruises, with enough variation of the core message to hit a constant theme. Enough space to offer up new lyrical workings and those lighter indie-pop instrumentals, too. Hook heavy bits and pieces, well-mixed beats and tempo that conclude a cleverly-worked album. Love Will Get You There is still a stand-out single, a force to be reckoned with as Inhaler change their pace to the slower appeals of So Far So Good. That it is. Inhaler have confidence in themselves and a colloquial touch to their lyrics. Not quite as strong as artists that came before them in the same genre, but hints of background and the roots of an artist always add those glimmers of personality. Moving pieces and emotive parts, like the first album, but throwing those intonations of hopeful, useless love at heavy instrumentals that revolve around powerful synth implementations. Small shuffles of the deck like that are major difference-makers. It shows what Inhaler is working toward.

Cuts & Bruises sticks to its steady course with focus. Blinkered at times, Inhaler test the waters of tepid, broader writing with These Are The Days, a sappy little number that worked as a solid single and serves its purpose here. Not as interesting as Perfect Storm, the longing clear in the love-laced lyrics Hewson puts forward on that one. Inhaler uses this sophomore album as a focus for instrumentals more than anything. Josh Jenkinson provides strong foundations for Dublin in Ecstasy, a clear highlight that leans into the power of simple interjections over the top of some immense guitar work. Arena-ready music from a band that has decided eleven tracks of mourning rejected love is their best shot at considering their sound. To that end, it works very well. When I Have Her On My Mind shows that next step. Synth beats and Hewson’s pleasing, relatable phrases are a flag of quality.

Inhaler successfully steers themselves through Cuts & Bruises, their second album and the superior of the two. Their solid indie-rock workings from that first piece are nurtured well once more, explored defiantly and embedded with a consistency that showcases Inhaler are keen to maintain what they started. Key to removing these tracks from being just another set of love songs is the precious suspicion maintained by Hewson’s lyrics. Hopeful track Valentine has a venomous sting lying underneath it. The Things I Do begins as a piano ballad but its punchy mid-section has the charms of a spy flick. Variety is clear on Cuts & Bruises, a collection of tracks to pick and choose from with clear themes running through with genuine, honest heart. Now You Got Me closes that simple intonation, but Inhaler’s set of confident, cool indie charms are explored further and further, with great results on Cuts & Bruises.