I know. I’m just taking the piss now, but THEY ARE CALLED INHALER FOR BANANA’S SAKE.

Good. Now that’s out of the way.

I won’t mention it again.

(I’m lying).

---

I wasn’t really planning on writing a post about the new Irish fab four, because it felt a bit awkward to me to do that as a daddy fan – you know what I mean – but eh, if Universal Music is using the U2 mailing list to promote their album, I guess it is fine doing it. 

Why?

Well. It feels weird. Did I say awkward? I’m a ‘dedicated’ – again, forever thankful The Edge for your politeness but let’s stop pretending, we’re all fuckin nuts – U2 fan, and also a huge music lover. 

The U2 fan in me is very uncomfortable about losing it about Eli’s band – and stop giving me that look, if you’re reading that shit, you most probably listened to this band in the first place because Eli was involved in it. 

And yet, the music lover in me doesn’t give a rats’ arse about those young fellas genealogy because for the sound junkie I am, new music is always the best fix to soothe my addict cravings. 

Oh great. Yet another inner conflict in my crazy mind. Ha. Well. Let’s see who throws the hardest punches then. 

 

Round 1 – I’m a U2 fan

As you might have noticed with the incessant babbling, U2 is the band of my life. But more than that, you also might have picked from the never-ending trail of drool all over the Internet, that a certain frontman is the fantasy crush of my life. 

Picture that for a second – it won’t be hard, it’s basically most of you guys. You’re a young impressionable gal who, like every young impressionable gal, has a celebrity crush. Except that you grow up, and oh shit, you even grow old and yet, you still have that very same celebrity crush. And there he is, still as hot as ever, having little offspring left and right, good for him eh? You just add the dad aura on top of every other quality he has and it makes him more irresistible than ever. 

But then. One day. One of those offspring starts a band. Now that’s gonna be interesting…

BUT you’re not done finishing that damn sentence that reality smashes your face with all its might. All of a sudden, everyone’s blabbing about the fact that the son looks like a younger version of your celebrity crush, but damn… you like the older version. What’s wrong with it? The older version is very cool, familiar and darn good looking so why would you… and and.. oh for god’s sake, it’s just WRONG. He’s a baby. A baby man but a baby nonetheless. But there you are witnessing a brand new version of hell filled with comparative memes, topless dad and son collages – and I’m talking paint.net level, not the gorgeousness of SOI cover – and very serious studies on the range of moan tones in the male part of the Hewson family. 

U2 fan part of brain : What. The. Actual. Fuck. 

The 5% left of my brain : I don’t care. I think. Can I have more coffee? 

Fine.

Whatever makes you happy. 

No harm done right? 

Probably. 

To each their own? 

Find joy and beauty where you can eh?

I’m running out of excuses but you know what? Who gives a fuck anyway, we’re living in a post pandemic world and we’re gonna have our sorry arses drowned in melting icebergs any day now so.. YOLO! Do your thing! It’s not like the boy is even aware of that anyway.. 

The other main subject of discussion is obviously THE most important thing that has ever been discussed in comment sections – according to some : Does Eli sound like his dad? 

Well. To be honest, I hope for him he does. That’d be one hell of a compliment given his old man is one of the most acclaimed rock singer of the last 2 millenniums – that’s not favoritism due to any crush, this is just facts. 

Yet, according to some social media specialists, from the Facebook YT university, he does have the same range as Bono circa January – March 1982, but only after breakfast. 

According to me? – as if you’d ever ask for that – Well I do have a very strong opinion about it and no matter how much you try to prove me wrong, I won’t change my mind. And my very honest face is stating just that one very honest thought : I don’t give a fuck if he does. 

He is Elijah Hewson, and that’s who I wanna hear when I put those songs on. I’m not looking to hear anyone else in that voice. He’s not a fckin muppet for banana’s sake. 

If I want to hear Bono, I’ll go put on one of the gazillion songs he sang or just listen to the voices in my head thank you very much – oh please, I heard your snort all the way from my side of the world, don’t judge. 

And before you start sending me scary threats again – seriously that’s not fun anymore, I even moved countries ffs, get a life or an other half to annoy – or randomly throw grumpy LMJ pictures at me (that’s a lot scarier than the threats really), everything I’m talking about here was already happening when those boys started… like a few years ago? Ha! You get the baby vibe now? I hope you do. People go to jail for that. I’m closer in age to Eli than I am to his pops and I can see how frigging twisted that is. That’s scarier than the LMJ grumpy pics guys. Well. Depends on the pic I guess. 

So let’s sum it all up. Eli looks like his dad – well, I’d be a tad bit worried if he didn’t honestly – and sounds like his dad – but essentially after breakfast in winter time. Hmm. Hmming again. 

Little side note here. You know that thing we all have in common? That thing that drove your youth and for which you fought so hard every single day? Something about not turning into you freaking parents?! Ha! Ponder on that for a minute. You see my point here? And yes I know, we all miserably failed, but still. 

Eli is his own man, and he deserves to be treated as such. So cut the boy some slack about it seriously. 

But eh, it gets worse! Guess what? You’re not the online one (saying a lot of shit while) staring at the sun. 

I know, I know there’s no such thing as bad press when you have to promote your band – maybe – but still I am so pissed off that every single headlines refers to inhaler as Bono’s son and his band. Can those damn papers have at least the decency to acknowledge the dude has an actual name? 

I mean it’s confusing. 

What will happen when people will come up with 0 results on ticketmaster when looking for ‘Bono’s son and his band’ tickets. Plus, That doesn’t sound like a very cool band name in 2021….maybe some jazz act in the 70s. Ha, sarcasm… my old friend. 

Lesson 101 of respect. Know their names. Eli, Josh, Bobby and Ryan. Inhaler. IN-HA-LER – at least that’s how it sounds in my French mouth. That ain’t so hard is it? I’m ready to take a stand on this and stop referring to Bono as God and switch to Eli’s dad. Would that sound weird to you? – I know, both do but it’s my blog so I get to decide – there. I rest my case. 

Inhale, exhale. Breathe. Inner poise. Okay, chamomile tea averted, let’s proceed. 

Maybe I’m completely wrong about all this. 

Maybe he does want to be like his dad(‘s career), but even if that’s the case, who can blame him? 

Bono is a freaking hero and we’ve all dreamt to fill his shoes at some point. Or pants. But that’s another story – today is the day I get on the ban list of not one but two rock bands. I should bake a cake (and choke on it) to celebrate. 

Ha.HA!

Scary eh ? 

Not me. I mean all this. 

Refocus on 3, 2,1…

Anyways, that is the main reason why I promised myself when the word got out about inhaler being an actual band and not just a life saving inanimate object – asthma kids unite! – to never ‘truly’ listen to them before they had time to grow as a band, and for me it meant before they released their first album. 

I heard a few songs obviously and watched a few low res live performances over the years, but I stayed true to my word and never truly listened until… last week. 

And I’m so glad I did. 

 

Round 2 – The music lover (that’s the bit when I’m actually gonna talk about the album if anyone want to skip all the cranky fan bullshit) 

I listen to a ton of music in general, and I try as much as possible to hit those ‘new music’ playlists often to keep track of what’s going on. New music is pretty much what news is for most people – I haven’t watched the news since I was 16 and deemed that we live in a world way too depressing for me to handle. So yes, new music pretty much informs me on the state of the world and much like regular news, most of it is what the actual fuck is happening, but sometimes, just sometimes magic happens… 

I stumbled a few times on inhaler’s songs on such playlists and they definitely got my attention… even though I didn’t know it was them. It’s that sound, their sound, that awoke the music lover in me. And not anything else. And it got my aul cynical arse wondering… 

Maybe there are still new guitar riffs that can make the hair on the back of my head stand up. Maybe there’s still voices unknown that can bring up a smile on my face. Maybe there’s still an energy worth harnessing to satisfy my musical cravings… maybe fckin rock n roll ain’t done just yet. Maybe. (Fuck Yeah!)

And so I started to keep a closer eye on it all, and of course a closer ear, but still from a distance remembering the promise I had made with myself. But then, the announcement came and with it a release date for their first album. Everything got so much more noisy, loud, vibrant.. And each passing single released was harder to resist. Stupid girl and her stupid bullshit principles. 

Yet I didn’t cave. And again, I’m so fuckin glad I waited. 

The fact that I couldn’t have it made it all the more desirable – because in case you don’t know yet, I pretty much have the emotional behaviour of a 3yo – and the feeling of anticipation I felt those few days before the release was just insane. 

Inhaler obviously didn’t help with that with a perfectly executed promo. They basically went for every single thing I’ve ever dreamt a band would do. The behind the scenes vids. The ig live updates. The gazillions different formats. The listening parties… they even had a fuckin cake! A CAKE! Like the actual running gag that we’ve had on the Internet forever of ‘I’m gonna bake a cake to celebrate that album and there’s nothing weird about it’. Holy bananas. You killed the game before we even had a chance to start playing lads. Seriously. 

And then the album dropped.. And it fucked up my whole ‘on repeat’ playlist because it’s been on loop for a whole week now. Not even mad. 

I was going to write a bigass 3 part essay about this album being one of the best debut albums I’ve heard in a long while but seriously? What do I know? On another hand, I’m pretty sure that whoever puts those numbers together do know, and man, we can’t be all wrong eh? That speaks volumes :

“We’re absolutely buzzin!” – @InhalerDublin celebrate their Number 1 debut album It Won’t Always Be Like This 🏆 https://t.co/NHCgn0ZSwQ pic.twitter.com/XfMFJuK9UE

— Official Irish Charts (@irishcharts) July 16, 2021

Damn guys. #1 DAMN. 

I’m still going to say that it’s one of the best debut albums I’ve heard in a long time – mostly because I wouldn’t be true to myself if I’d ever shut up. 

I was completely mind blown with the album version of ‘it won’t always be like this’. You can definitely hear their evolution and how hard they worked with that song only. There’s a maturity in their sound that I never expected to find on a first album. They’ve got freaking MOOD songs. How can they have MOOD songs?! 

What the actual fuck is happening alright… and I mean that as a compliment this time. 

They sound good. They sound fresh. And more than that, they sound like a band who worked their arses off to be the best band they could possibly be. They wanted it, and they didn’t just get it. They fuckin took it. And brilliantly. Ha. 

 

Round 3 – Stop throwing punches brain, coexist. 

What did I get from all that you’ll ask me? What was even the point of resisting? Well, they got my respect. They got my respect as musicians, as a band, as human beings with actual names. But fine, coexist, and I see your point. I didn’t listen to their stuff for so long for that exact reason – I was too scared to fall into the comparison pit. 

But if you did… Why not eh? Are there really any wrong reasons to enjoy new music? Probably not. Whatever is the reason that pushes you towards something that brings you joy, it can’t be all bad right? 

And that’s how I actually found peace and shushed the U2 fan in me – that wasn’t easy, you all tried and failed, I mean ha. And for a very simple reason. This has absolutely nothing to do with U2, or a band, or looks, or comparisons, or numbers, or who-wore-that-leather-pants-better (Dad of course). It’s about music. And after listening to Inhaler’s album, that’s what came through. It’s them. Not us. And I’ll go back to this one last time before shutting the hell up about it forever. These boys managed to make me forget who Eli’s dad is – at least for a few songs, don’t be silly now – and that’s probably the best compliment a “dedicated (crazy)” U2 fan could ever give them. 

If you enjoy their shit, enjoy THEIR shit, and don’t bring any other shit into it. That’s way too much shit to handle. You’re all starting to look like the freaking news right now.

Go get a cup of coffee, sit down on a nice couch and just ask yourselves the right questions. That’s what I did, and I guess it works. 

Do I enjoy Inhaler’s music? 

Yeap. 

Will I be a fan? 

Time will tell. It’s way too soon to know – plus they definitely don’t need any old cranky u2 fans anymore, or ever. 

Will I go to one of their shows if I get the chance? 

100% fuck yeah. Live music is my happy place, and I have a feeling those songs are meant to be heard live. Don’t sideye me now lads, I’ll even buy a damn shirt that will never fit me like I always do. 

But all in all, here’s one final thought that makes me grin from ear to ear… Even though I really enjoyed that album, and I’m really looking forward to seeing where those boys will take us next, there’s something I know for certain. 

Inhaler will never be the band of my life, this spot is taken and it will never change, but that’s okay, because I have a feeling, scratch that, I’m utterly convinced that they have what it takes to become the band of many people’s lives.  

And that’s all that really matters.

Go big lads because you already are.

And promise, we’ll just stick very far at the back of the GA where we won’t embarrass you, because… we still want some of that magic you’re playing.

• Inhaler
• music
• New Music
• Not just Bono's son