With their mix of bold choruses, pulsating hooks and impassioned lyrics, ‘Life Is Perfect,’ the debut record from Irish rockers Only Rivals is delivered with intent. Tracks like recent singles ‘Replace // Exchange’ and ‘Sing’ have an edgy rock exterior that is countered with a favourable and infectious poppy core.
From hearing ‘Life Is Perfect’, it is clear the Dublin quartet have a range of familiar and renowned influences that have shaped Only Rivals’ sound.
As they prepare to release ‘Life Is Perfect’ this Friday, we asked vocalist/guitarist Stephen Arkins to give us a list of notable albums that have left an impact on Only Rivals and have influenced them along the way.
Blink 182 – Blink 182
Blink 182 are the reason we picked up instruments and are a band. This album was a huge influence on our sound and made us want to write heavier songs while still maintaining that pop sensibility.
Saves The Day – Stay What You Are
This was one of the first albums I heard where the lyrics really blew me away. Chris Conley is a genius song writer, he writes these beautiful songs that have really dark lyrics and has one of the best voices in the genre.
New Found Glory – Catalyst
What else can you say about this album besides that its a pop punk masterpiece? From the opening riff right until the very end this album is banger after banger and was probably the “heaviest” pop punk album at the time when it first came out. This album was a game changer and had a massive influence on our song writing.
Brand New – Déjà Entendu
Jesse Lacey. That is all.
Jimmy Eat World – Bleed American
It’s safe to say we wouldn’t sound the way we do with out Jimmy Eat World. This was the first “emo” album I fell in love with and it opened up the doors to a new genre for me and helped me discover a whole new world of bands that still influence us to this day.
Foo Fighters – The Colour and The Shape
This album still has a massive influence on us, it was one of the records we played our producer before we started recording ‘Life Is Perfect.’ The production and songs still hold up to this day. If this album came out today it would still be massive.
Manchester Orchestra – Cope
What an album. How a band can sound so hefty yet so beautiful is really inspiring. They’re one of the best bands going at the moment. The acoustic version of this album (‘Hope’) is absolutely incredible and shows how diverse this band can be.
Biffy Clyro – Opposites
Probably one of the only double disc albums I can listen to from start to finish. Biffy are one of those bands that can’t really write bad songs. Watching Biffy climb from obscurity to exploding on to the main stream is really inspiring and gives a lot of heavy bands hope.
‘Life Is Perfect’ by Only Rivals is released on 18th September on SO Recordings.
