Pillow Queens - Name Your Sorrow

Dublin’s Pillow Queens have never shied away from big melodies. Their 2020 debut paired introspective tales of sexuality and religion with suitably rousing sounds, a feat they repeated with 2022’s ‘Leave The Light On’. Now, their third album in four years, ‘Name Your Sorrow’ makes a huge play for the big leagues, building on what has come before, while pushing the production quality all the way up. Sights have shifted from the dive bars of Ireland’s capital to huge stadiums and festival stages, shown in the emotive build of ‘Blew Up The World’ and ‘The Bar’s Closed’ – the latter arguably the most heart-breaking song of their career to date. Everything here sounds massive: from the rising grandeur of opener ‘February 8th’ to the rallying ‘Heavy Pour’ and the powerful closing track ‘Notes On Worth’. The sheer number of curtain-drop moments is remarkable, somehow never overused or superfluous. There’s a mastery in the songwriting, too: simultaneously gut-wrenching and incredibly cathartic, continuing a thread that has underpinned the band’s material this far. It’s with this beautifully complex blend of emotion that Pillow Queens soar, with ‘Name Your Sorrow’ once again proving the four-piece as some of the best songwriters going.