Inhaler's Second Album "Cuts & Bruises"

By Chloe Chang

Photo by Lewis Evans

Dublin band Inhaler released their second album Cuts & Bruises two years after their debut album It Won't Always Be Like This!

Cuts & Bruises is an 11-track album and the songs are "all about coming-of-age stuff – the standard stuff you write when you're a teenager," according to vocalist and guitarist Elijah Hewson in a press release. Hewson adds, "But it also became a little bit more about being in a band. These songs are less about the world around us and more about what's going on inside Inhaler.”

Photo by Tom Oxley

In an interview with Billboard, the Inhaler members spoke about the newest addition to their discography. Hewson said Cuts & Bruises got its name because "I think we kind of realized that being in a band is maybe, sounds silly, but more of a commitment than we thought. Not in a sense that we have to work, but I think in relation to our relationships with each other. It’s a little bit like a marriage, and I think there’s always going to be a little bit of residual scar tissue left over after so many years of working and playing with each other." Hewson directed some attention to Cuts & Bruises' track "Now You See Me" when mentioning it as the song that captures the album's message because as he said, "it’s about commitment to something, and a lot of the lyrics are about joining the band and stuff like that. And I think that paints a picture, for me, of the whole album and where [Inhaler is] right now." Inhaler's drummer Ryan McMahon elaborated saying, "[The song] sums up just the overall residing theme of it being an album of love songs, about loving your friends, really."

Inhaler was formed in 2012, and in 2017, the group independently released their first EP I Want You. By 2019, Inhaler signed a record deal with Polydor Records, whose parent company is Universal Music Group. Since then, Inhaler's popularity has steadily grown, expanding out of Ireland and spreading worldwide. The band performed at music festivals Glastonbury and Lollapalooza in 2022 and have also opened for the Arctic Monkeys for their Istanbul, Burgas, Pula, and Prague shows. Inhaler will continue playing select European shows on the Arctic Monkeys tour this year!

Photo by Emma Viola Lilja

After the release of Cuts & Bruises, Inhaler is going on the road for the rest of 2023. The group has their own headlining tour starting on February 17th in the U.K.! The tour will last until April after the U.S. and European legs. Hewson said to NME that 2023 will have better shows because "It’s not just five lads on stage chancing their arm anymore; we actually have to step up and make it a real thing." When Inhaler finishes their tour and supporting performances for the Arctic Monkeys, the band will bring their new album to numerous festivals such as Aix Les Baines' Musilac and Glasgow's TRNSMT in July, as well as the Reading and Leeds Festival in August.

Be sure to check out everything Inhaler has for this year, and stream their second album Cuts & Bruises now on all platforms!