Like Clutter and The Orchestra (For Now), Adore is a band that I’ve been following for a while, waiting for them to build a critical mass of singles that I can build a post around. Patience is rewarded – not only are their four singles pitch-perfect garage-punk, but the social commentary that comes with it is authentic and inspiring. This is the sound of three serious, studied musicians going for broke.
I first heard Adore when they released “Supermum!” (above) back in September of 2024: a garage-punk drag-race, where every element is pushing the others to harder, faster, more wild. Lead singer and guitarist Lara Minchin’s sarcastic and tired-of-this-shit vocal delivers serious lyrics about sexual assault, while Lachlann Ó Fionnáin on bass and vocals and Naoise Jordan Cavanagh on drums blaze alongside her:
I grew up in a time
Where I can’t decline,
Yeah it was rude to refuse
He said honey
You’re looking alright
I’ve got some spare time
I’ve got something to show you
It was their second single. 2023’s “Postcards” has the same centrifugal force to it, a barely controlled chaos that evokes The Breeders, Elastica and even a touch of The White Stripes. It’s clear why Adore has been asked to open for Irish powerhouses SPRINTS and the Cardinals, even without so much as an EP:
Turns out that the SPRINTS connection is more than just a couple of female-fronted Irish punk bands. They’ve collaborated with each other and worked with some of the same producers. In an interview with The University Observer, Minchin goes further:
“I think the niche we fall into is just the concept of loud women. We seem to get paired up with Sprints a lot, and Carla from Sprints is amazing, and she’s a loud woman. And no one fears anything more than that.”
In the last few months of 2024, they built a strong following in the indie music press, earning a spot on a few ‘bands to watch’ lists at year end. Their single “Can We Talk” continues the full-speed aural onslaught, again engaging with the theme of domestic violence and a toxic relationship, the intensity of the track tightening as the relationship it documents becomes more fraught:
Sometimes I think you want me dead
I’d be left in the hollows, where I’d been led
I’d be remembered just as you wished
As a professional griever, forever in bliss
Then a couple of weeks ago came “Stay Free Old Stranger”, a song that Minchin wrote when she was part of a different band. It’s not as tightly wound as the Adore’s first three singles, but it still has a frantic, kinetic energy that momentarily gives way to a slow, swinging jazz break, only to end in a climax with feral intensity:
Adore is a band out to make a statement as loudly as they make noise. With each single, they’ve developed their sound into a razor-sharp blend of garage-punk ferocity and unflinching social commentary. From the sardonic rage of “Supermum!” to the chaotic catharsis of “Stay Free Old Stranger”, their music is urgent, relevant, and impossible to ignore.
Further Reading
Show review and photography at The Thin Air
