Cardinals share new music video for ‘I Like You’
Cardinals | Photo Credit: @arianekiks
Selected praise for Cardinals and ‘Masquerade’:
Best Albums Of 2026 So Far - Stereogum
"The next great Irish band is here." Culture tips for 2026 - The Observer
"Indie's next great storytellers." The Cover - NME
"Both tenderness and tension... deeply intimate - like being let in on something private." ***** - DORK
"Praise Cardinals, punk romantics reclaiming Irish roots from the folk cabal." **** - Mojo
"One of the best rock debuts in years... brilliant." - The Independent
""Here is a band that can do it all, offering moments of light and dark to create something worthy of greatness." - Rolling Stone UK
"A breath-taking debut album." - CLASH
"A new take on Eighties alternative-rock: familiar yet fresh and exciting too." **** - The Times
"Whether Cardinals become the next big band to come out of Ireland, only time will tell, but as of now they're certainly making a strong case for it." **** - DIY
"Cork five-piece mix emotional, wracked rock with accordion and maudlin folk, shards of distortion bursting through the half-light... a fine debut." UNCUT
"Expect a sizeable cult following soon." **** - Record Collector
Cork's Cardinals today return with the video for an undoubted album highlight, ‘I Like You’. Recorded directly to film, the song lands alongside the announce of a US tour in September, a further UK & Irish headline tour in November, and a busy summer of festivals and shows that sees the band continue to build a growing fanbase internationally.
Frontman Euan Manning had to say the following about the song:
"This is the first song we wrote with the album in mind, and after a very long period of not working on anything we started and finished this one bright morning last February in our practice studio.
The first lyric is stripped/paraphrased from the tune 'My Funny Valentine', I don't think it was written by Chet Baker but that's the version we know."
With the band themselves taking visual cues from the 2001 film Manic by Jordan Melamed and 1994's Autumn by Doug Aitken, Xander Lewis had the following to say about the newly recovered film and its themes:
"We worked with the band to develop a treatment which focused on allowing the relationship between camera and performance to feel casual while maintaining an intimacy and closeness for parts of the song. We shot in the manner of a documentary, on just a few rolls of 16mm & 8mm; this made us selective with our shots and alert not to miss any nice spontaneous moments."
‘Masquerade’ contains emotionally expansive songs, some simmering with an undercurrent of violence, cynicism or fervent discontent (Anhedonia, The Burning of Cork, Barbed Wire) and others gleaming with a bright-eyed vulnerability. A vivid first half contrasts a darker second and crafts a record with a clear A-side and B-side. A nod to the band’s collective love of vinyl, that tonal shift takes its cue from a variety of expected and unexpected influences - from the brittle honesty of folk to the theatrical melodrama of goth-rock.
A band forged through both family and friendship - brothers Euan and Finn Manning, their cousin Darragh and their former schoolmates Oskar Gudinovic and Aaron Hurley - the five-piece have already positioned themselves at the vanguard of the Irish independent rock scene. And with ‘Masquerade’, they have flung off any shackles to craft something entirely their own.
‘Masquerade’ is available on physical formats including vinyl and CD. The bands Rough Trade, Big Love (Japan) and Artist Store exclusive variants have all sold out. Those in Australia are able to order an exclusive edition via Impressed. Limited copies remain.
Buy 'Masquerade' here
After 2025 live performances including Fontaines D.C.'s massive Finsbury Park all-dayer, supporting Wunderhorse twice in Dublin and a support The Pogues in Boston, the band performed an extensive set of headline dates in March in support of the album before a US return last month to perform at Salt Lake City's Kilby Block Party.
2026 will prove a busier year still, with the band heading across the world in support of ‘Masquerade’, including performing their debut dates in South Korea and Japan.
Catch Cardinals live:
June 14th - God Save The Kouing Festival - Brittany, France
July 3rd - Rock Werchter Festival - Belgium
July 4th - Les Eurockéennes - Belfort
July 10th - Hana-Bi - Marina di Ravenna (RA), Italy
July 11th - Lars Rock Festival - Chiusi (SI)
July 12th - Urbica - Pesaro, Italy
July 14th - Largo Venue - Roma, Italy
July 24th - Galway International Arts Festival - Galway, Ireland
August 7th - Haldern Pop Festival - Rees-Haldern, Germany
July 31st - All Together Now - Portlaw, Ireland
August 9th - Mojotic Festival - Sestri Levante, Italy
August 12th - CJ Azit - Seoul, South Korea
August 14th - Summer Sonic - Tokyo, Japan
August 15th - Summer Sonic - Osaka, Japan
August 28th - Reading Festival - Reading, UK
August 29th - Leeds Festival - Leeds, UK
Sep 12th - Drake Underground - Toronto, Canada
Sep 14th - Bowery Ballroom - New York NY, US
Sep 15th - Johnny Brenda's - Philadelphia PA, US
Sep 16th - Songbyrd DC - Washington DC, US
Sep 18th - 20th - Riot Fest - Chicago IL, US
Sep 19th - Cannery Hall, Nashville TN, US
Sep 20th - Shaky Knees Festival - Atlanta GA, US
Sep 22nd - Brushy Street Commons - Austin TX, US
Sep 23rd - Club Dada - Dallas TX, US
Sep 25th - Globe Hall - Denver CO, US
Sep 27th - The Rebel Lounge - Phoenix AZ, US
Sep 28th - HOB - Voodoo Room - San Diego CA, US
Sep 29th - Troubador - West Hollywood CA, US
Sep 30th - Cornerstone Berkeley - Berkeley CA, US
Oct 27th - La Cartonnerie - Reims, France
Oct 28th - La Maroquinerie - Paris, France
Oct 29th - Trix Club - Antwerpen, Belgium
Nov 1st - Lantaren Venster - Rotterdam, Netherlands
Nov 3rd - Frannz Club - Berlin, Germany
Nov 9th - Concorde 2 - Brighton, UK
Nov 11th - The Fleece - Bristol, UK
Nov 12th - Electric Ballroom - London, UK
Nov 13th - Bodega - Nottingham, UK
Nov 14th - Coventry Central Library - Coventry, UK
Nov 16th - Brudenell Social Club - Leeds, UK
Nov 17th - The Art School - Glasgow, UK
Nov 18th - Arts Club - Liverpool, UK
Nov 20th - The Button Factory - Dublin, Ireland
Nov 26th - Blind - Istanbul, Turkey
Cardinals
Masquerade
Out February 13th 2026
So Young Records
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
Cardinals are:
Euan Manning - guitar and vocals
Oskar Gudinovic - guitar
Aaron Hurley - bass
Finn Manning - accordion
Darragh Manning - drums
