Kodaline's last studio bow lands clean and complete

Twelve songs, one writer, an eight-out-of-ten send-off at home, and farewell dates still stretching through late 2026 — the studio door is shut, the road is not.

Kodaline’s fifth and final studio album, We Were Only Young, came out on 2 October via Concord Records. The Swords band marked the moment on their official website with a plain message: “Our final album … is out at midnight. Thank you for everything.”

The twelve-track set was written entirely by frontman Steve Garrigan. It opens with “Who Will Save You Now” and closes with “The One For Me”. In between sit the title track, “Back To Me”, “Without You”, “Get Me High”, “All I Ever Need Is You”, “Vultures”, “Last Forever”, “Learn To Lose”, “Hindsight” and “It’s Not Over”. “Without You” was written as a wedding speech and first dance for Garrigan’s wife — a direct line from a private occasion into the finished song, and one of the clearest signs of how this last batch of writing was shaped.

A single voice on the way out

Garrigan taking every writing credit gives the farewell a single voice from first to last. That is unusual even for a frontman-led group, and it suits the job the record has been asked to do. The themes are love, loss, friendship and growing older: a long look back over more than a decade of work, framed as a closing statement rather than a fresh start. The sequencing underlines the point. A final album that begins on a plea for rescue and ends on a claim of belonging is already telling a story before a note is heard; titles such as “Last Forever”, “Learn To Lose”, “Hindsight” and “It’s Not Over” sit in the same register, while “Vultures” and “Get Me High” keep a harder edge in the middle of the run.

Since the tracklist was named at the end of September and the 2 October date locked through Concord, the open questions were how the finished record would land and how the band would mark the day. Both now have answers. At home it has been given eight out of ten and called a fitting final bow — early praise that sits neatly beside the band’s short thank-you. Vinyl editions follow a week later in some markets, so the physical release trails the digital one.

The road still has nights left

The studio chapter is closed; the live one is not. We Were Only Young follows the Farewell World Tour, with dates still running into late 2026 across Europe and the UK. That split matters. A final studio album can arrive while the band are still on stage, and the remaining nights give the record a living context rather than a sudden full stop. For an Irish group that has spent the year winding the show down in public, the album does the same work in the studio: twelve songs, one writer, no sequel planned.

What has changed since the release was first flagged, the tracklist named and the day itself arrived is simple and concrete. The record is out. The thank-you has been posted. The score at home is in. The vinyl is a week behind in some territories. Everything else — the tour still to play, the shape of the goodbye on stage — remains the business of the months ahead. Listeners who have followed the run through to this last set now have the finished statement in front of them; the gigs still to come will carry that statement through the rest of the year before the full stop lands for good.

Tour dates

DECEMBER 2026

12 – London, Roundhouse
14 – Glasgow, O2 Academy
15 – Manchester, Albert Hall
16 – London, O2 Shepherds Bush Empire
18 – Dublin, 3Arena