FLORENCE ROAD - Spring Forward

Florence Road have come a long way in just a handful of years. Formed as a high school band ("Florence Road" is indeed the name of the street in Bray, in the Irish county of Wicklow, where the school all four musicians attended was located), they exploded on TikTok with a series of covers that went viral, and now arrive at their second EP, one that confirms them as one of the most interesting bands to have emerged in recent times. If "Fall Back", the mixtape they debuted with last year, had already made a great impression thanks to a carefully crafted mix of influences drawn mostly from the Nineties, its follow-up "Spring Forward" raises the bar even further.

The four new songs on the EP highlight the maturity already achieved by the Irish quartet, with increasingly inspired songwriting. This was already hinted at towards the end of 2025, when, just a few weeks apart, they released two striking new tracks later included on this new record: "Miss" and "Storm Warnings". The former perfectly showcases the band's full potential: from the expressive qualities of talented singer Lily Aron to the always incisive riffs of guitarist Emma Brandon, to Florence Road's ability to move between registers that are miles apart, almost polar opposites. "Miss" opens as a melancholy ballad à la Lana Del Rey, but suddenly evolves into something completely different: the guitars kick in and the frontwoman's versatile voice rises, until it explodes into a powerful, cathartic chorus.

"Storm Warnings" comes across as just as fierce, with sounds that nod to grunge and to the rawer songs of The Cranberries, all enhanced by a cinematic video shot specifically for the occasion, with the band literally swept up by a real storm on the coast of Dingle, in County Kerry.

The third single lifted from the EP, the acoustic ballad "Rabbits Can Swim", reveals the other side of Florence Road, the more intimate and emotional one, in this case indebted to Phoebe Bridgers (of whom they had already delivered an intense cover of "Georgia"). Another bullseye. Whatever the mood, there's no denying their knack for writing choruses that instantly lodge themselves in your head: this feels like a band with the potential to reach a far wider audience than just the indie circuit, with everything it takes to win over teenage girls and boomers alike. After all, last summer they had no qualms about opening the London and Dublin dates for Olivia Rodrigo, performing in stadiums for the first time. And in the following months they shone and won over new fans, first touring Europe with Wolf Alice (we already told you about their Alcatraz Milan concert) and now with Last Dinner Party in the United States.

One could argue that "Spring Forward" lacks a bit of the element of surprise, at least for those who follow Florence Road closely, given that three out of four tracks had already been released before the EP came out. Except that the one still unreleased is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch. "Hanging Out To Dry" indeed adds new ingredients to the four Irish musicians' formula. Beyond Lily Aron's now well-established vocal versatility, there's also a remarkable attention to harmonic progressions, underpinned by Ailbhe Barry's refined basslines and Hannah Kelly's driving drums, while the lyrics recount the attempt to deny an unrequited feeling, along with the sense of not feeling appreciated enough.

One is left wondering whether these four songs might have been better saved for the long-awaited debut album, which the band evidently still doesn't consider ready, even though Florence Road have repeatedly stated in interviews that they have an absurd number of songs already written and, for now, kept in a drawer. If the standard is that of "7563", still officially unreleased but already one of the highlights of their live shows, we're in for a real treat.

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12/04/2026