Cardinals have announced their debut album ‘Masquerade’

Cardinals are set to release their debut album ‘Masquerade’ on 13th February via So Young Records, and have shared its title track alongside details of UK and European headline shows.

Recorded with producer Shrink at RAK Studios in London across the summer, the ten-track set is described as balancing grand, romantic scale with intimate, reflective moments, drawing on influences from folk to goth-rock.

Introducing the album and single, 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.”

He adds: “The song Masquerade is the broadest exploration of that. It’s definitely one of the more intimate moments on the album. The vulnerability it reveals is uncomfortable and that’s where we wanted to be when we were writing the songs on the record.”

The band’s recent activity has included appearances at Fontaines D.C.’s Finsbury Park all-dayer, supporting Wunderhorse in Dublin, and US dates with The Pogues in Boston, followed by a run of Stateside headline shows. They return to the UK to headline the So Young tour with Mên An Tol and Pebbledash before a European headline run.

The dates read:

SEPTEMBER
16 Zebulon, Los Angeles, CA, USA
22 Strange Brew, Bristol, UK
23 Joiners, Southampton, UK
25 Waterfront Studio, Norwich, UK
26 Belgrave, Leeds, UK
27 Yes Pink Room, Manchester, UK
29 Patterns, Brighton, UK
30 Moth Club, London, UK
NOVEMBER
24 Point Ephemere, Paris, France
26 Kantine, Berlin, Germany
27 Ratinger Hof, Düsseldorf, Germany
28 Trefpunt, Gent, Belgium
29 Doornroosje, Nijmegen, Netherlands
30 Tolhuistuin, Amsterdam, Netherlands

The tracklisting for ‘Masquerade’ reads: ‘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’