🎧 Approved: For Nina

For Nina aren’t in the business of big statements. Not yet, anyway. But their new single ‘Swallow’ (released today) doesn’t ask for your attention so much as quietly consume it.

Still in their teens and early twenties, the Dublin trio are piecing together something sharp and atmospheric. ‘Swallow’ begins in soft-focus, all twinkling guitar motifs and unhurried pacing, eventually breaking into a wash of heavy, shoegaze-inflected distortion. Think Slowdive, but with an Irish lilt.

Holly Owens’ voice is the anchor here; delicate but unflinching. She gives the track its emotional pull without ever overreaching. 

Speaking on the track, the band explain how it started life as a forgotten voice note from secondary school, rediscovered and rebuilt into the version we hear now. “From the first time we played it live we knew it was sparkling in a different way”, they say. 

‘Swallow’ sounds like a band finding the edge of what they can do and pushing a little past it. Keep an eye on this one.

🎧 Listen to ‘Swallow’ below