Track of the Day: Hail The Ghost – Little Lungs (2026)
With a critically acclaimed background in music and film, actor and singer-songwriter Kieran O’Reilly is no new name to the entertainment industry. From his roles in Vikings and Love/Hate to his musical skills in Irish groups Doris and White McKenzie, O’Reilly proves himself a true artist in his own right. Of course, no band is a one-man show – unless they really are a one-man act – as veteran musicians Ian Corr and Eamon Young join him in Hail The Ghost. Today, we take a gander at their most recent single, ‘Little Lungs’.
Following the well-received 2025 singles ‘The Mirror’ and ‘Seeps’, Hail The Ghost enters 2026 with a bold alternative rock sound. Recorded and produced at JAM Studios, Kells, Meath, by Martin Quinn, ‘Little Lungs’ finds a line between 90s alt-rock with smidgeons of 80s post-punk tinging the edges of the track. For me, I found a slight whisper of The Cure teetering along in the vocals; however, an overall rush of rock edginess is what sends you twirling about in the kaleidoscopic soundscape.
At an overall glance, ‘Little Lungs’ is an intriguing alternative rock song brimming with O’Reilly’s crashing drums, Corr’s lingering piano, and Young’s crisp guitar entwined with its powerful crescendos and soaring stance. Yet, as much as it is a song to enjoy at full volume, bursting through your speakers, ‘Little Lungs’ is also an immersive experience with intense imagery…actually, no, not imagery, rather raw emotion. Its eeriness leads you through a dark sonic mire bound in a heavy, haunting fog – a perfect melodic expression of the theme of loneliness and anger.
Instrumentally, the track is hypnotic and emotional, but it is the profound lyricism executed in O’Reilly’s deep baritone that makes the delicate subject matter most impactful. Penned as a conversational piece from the perspective of a newborn baby being considered for adoption, ‘Little Lungs’ delves into the complexity and humanity within the issue of abandonment. Lines like, “Little Lungs, you’re not alone, ‘cause anger made you its home” prompt the thought that “…irrespective of whether or not the deliberating parents returned to the child or not, the act of leaving their newborn child for the first few months of its life probably contributed to the lifetime of anger which followed.”
Brooding and moody with a skin-chilling honesty oozing from the sound, ‘Little Lungs’ is a song I’ll not soon forget. With the promise of more new songs in 2026, I wait with anticipation to hear what else this Irish trio has in store.
Find out more about Hail The Ghost on their Facebook, X, Instagram, YouTube, Soundcloud and Spotify.
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