For some bands who have built their profile by releasing numerous audience pleasing singles the release of their first album can sometimes be an underwhelming experience as you’ve already heard the good stuff and what’s left to discover for the most part is filler. Not so for Limerick’s whenyoung whose debut album ‘Reasons to Dream’ features only one of their pre-2019 back catalogue of catchy indie pop tunes and is a record marked by quality throughout.

It’s with a degree of confidence and intelligence (hallmarks of the trio of Aoife Power, Niall Burns & Andrew Flood) that the wonderful 2018 single Pretty Pure is placed front and centre allowing the rest of the album to breathe on its own terms and placed along side Never Let Go it’s a powerful opening double salvo

That dynamic intro is followed by the intensely emotive The Others which was written in the aftermath of the Grenfell Tower tragedy. It has been a consistent highlight from their live set and here it loses none of it’s passionate urgency. A Labour Love is a slight change in pace which packs a heart-rending punch with Power dictating a spine-tingling spoken word passage before the song’s chorus fades to a delicate coda.

Blow Up the World strikes a similar vein before Blank Walls ups the energy again with its vivacious chorus. The pace is ratcheted up yet another level for Future a classy, instantly catchy affair, before we are treated to the finely polished In My Dreams whose mix of guitar lines, throbbing bass and beautifully pitched piano delivers what might just be the standout track on the album.

Heartbroken and Something Sweet bring ‘Reasons to Dream’ to a close maintaining the same high standards of musicianship and songsmithry right to the end.

When we spoke to the band for their 2019 Plec Picks profile at the start of the year they stated that they have massive ambitions and if this album is anything to go by they have at least eleven reasons to dream and dream big!