There’s nothing subtle about It Won’t Always Be Like This or Inhaler, and that’s what I like about it. Inhaler doesn’t hide ambition; they embrace it. This is a record that lives and dies by the same joie de vivre that created it, and its that same “all or nothing” attitude that makes the album so compelling.
There’s a striking confidence about how Inhaler goes about their craft. From the outset, the band swing for the fences. Opening with the title track, It Won’t Always Be Like This, and indeed Inhaler, introduce themselves as big, bold and daring. The guitars are enormous, the drum massive, and the vocals commanding. Planting their flag firmly in the anthemic-rock realm, Inhaler set the scene for their debut perfectly.
It Won’t Always Be Like This is an album that moves. Everything shifts and rumbles with an urgency to be heard. From the angular motion of ‘Cheer Up Baby’ to the jangled pulse of ‘My King Will Be Kind’ and back to the swaggering anthem ‘In My Sleep’, the whole record dances along with apparent, precise confidence.
But, confidence is nothing without craft, and throughout It Won’t Always Be Like This, Inhaler showcase their ability to write songs that last long in the memory. This leads to the album’s zenith, ‘My Honest Face’. Set to a breakneck speed, a thumping dynamic foundation and widescreen production, the song is pin-point stadium rock made all the more compelling by a vocal made for that great, big-crowd/big-band setting.
And so it goes, confidence is compelling when it’s backed up by ability. With It Won’t Always Be Like This, Inhaler delivers on the hype with room to spare. Sounding like a band on their fourth or fifth record but playing with the ragged ambition only to be found on debuts, Inhaler walks the tightrope and makes it to the other side. If this record is the beginning, then it’s the start of something exceptional.
