Kodaline – ‘Love Like This’

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Accompanied by a dark, moody video and a tuneful bit of banjo-strumming, the third single from Irish-based alternative rock quartet Kodaline is sweet in its nature, but let down by the radio-friendly vibe and boring chorus.

It’s a promising start. The folk influences which have so shaped the band are apparent in the long instrumental the song begins with, with a lot of melodic guitar-playing building up for a good minute before the vocals kick in. I was nodding along at this point, and it seems as though this upbeat folky-ness would continue throughout the rest of the song. It did in some senses, and I particular enjoyed the harmonica which came in at several interludes, but overall the lyrics sounded rather strained (although kudos to the lead singer for managing to hit such high notes).

A couple of spoken-word sentences in the middle of ‘Love Like This’ reminded me of something ‘back in the day’ Razorlight might have included in one of their songs, as opposed to inducing sympathise for the spurned love of the singer. In fact, I found the chorus to be rather dreary and whilst the lyrics of the other verses are fairly emotional and well-structured – after a few listens I began enjoying it more – nothing about them are particularly memorable.

Overall, Kodaline have produced a relatively good effort, and with a few listens it did begin to grow on me. However, with the influx of folk/alternative-rock to the charts recently, I wouldn’t go so far as to claim a revolution in the notion of the genre. ‘Love Like This’ plays it pretty safe, and the premise of this track is nothing ground-breaking.

5/10

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1 Comment

  1. Connor Foley on

    Kodaline’s entire first album is let down by its ‘platitudenal’ tendencies. Perhaps if they didn’t try to tick boxes and instead do something of their own they’d do better. ‘All Comes Down’ us there beat track

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