Artist: Inhaler
Album: Open Wide
Reviewer: Nick Whitley
Inhaler’s newest album Open Wide is an earnest exploration of love, loss and looking back at your life as if to ask, “How did I get here?”
First coming onto the scene in the mid 2010s, Inhaler’s first few releases seem to be weighed down with a sort of nervous apprehension, as though they themselves are unsure about what it is they are trying to say with their music. While trying to shake the legacy of frontman Elijah Hewson’s father Bono, the band simultaneously attempt to carve their own name into the annals of pop rock however they can.
The sweet and polished vocals of Hewson guide you from bright introductions (“Eddie in the Darkness”) to glam-rock-infused gospel choirs (“Your House”) to punchy pop-rock angst (“X-Ray”). You can almost find yourself getting lost in the world that’s crafted within each word. If every song is a story, even the silence between each verse seems to hold a thousand things left unsaid.
Even as a fan of Inhaler’s early work, I can admit that at times it can feel a little unpolished and overambitious. Yet, slowly but surely through each release, the band seems to shed some of that nervous weight they have been carrying on their shoulders. With their signature guitar anthems sounding smoother, and their writing coming into its own, it feels like now with Open Wide the band are finally where they ought to be: confident and strong, with a finely honed sense of identity.
With this evolution of the band in mind, I want to say how in many ways this album seems to be haunted by its past. With lyrics consistently drawing back to childhood and vocals that seem almost yearning for something simpler, it almost begs the question: What does it mean to grow and change? It’s often painful and messy and embarrassing, especially from a perspective where your past is readily available to the masses, warts and all.
Yet it pushes through. It utilizes that feeling and engulfs the record in a warm haze of synth and fond nostalgia. Maybe in a few years this album will be in itself a messier version of what was to come – a well-intentioned blip on their discography –yet it seems comfortable with that, at peace with the knowledge that this is who they are. Songs like “Still Young” and “Little Things” seem to consolidate this idea, with lyrics that ask for little but reassurance, and patience as they come into their own.
At face value, Open Wide is another pop-rock installment from Inhaler’s growing discography. With songs about broken hearts and long nights, hazy guitars and the faintest hints of an Irish accent poking through carefully clear vocals. But at its core, it marks the start of a new beginning for the band: a final look back at their past, before marching into what lies ahead.
Favorite songs: “Eddie in the Darkness,” “Your House,” “X-Ray”