I Leave You This - A Flight into Sound with Overhead, the Albatross

Overhead, The Albatross – I leave You This 

Released : 15 – 11- 2024 

Vinyl pressed through Dunk! Records 

Overhead, The Albatross have always thrived on emotion, scale-towering crescendos, cinematic textures, and the kind of post-rock ambition that reaches for both your heart and your soul. I have been lucky enough to have witnessed their live performances on three occasions now, so with this review, my heart is firmly on my sleeve, as those shows literally broke me!! With I Leave You This, their long-awaited follow-up to Learning to Growl, the Dublin collective present us with yet another album of delicious post music, and have given us another look on life, death, and the ties that bind them. It’s a record steeped in heartache and remembrance, yet full of warmth, carrying you through moments of silence, chaos, and utter catharsis. 

Having only received a vinyl press two weeks ago, It was the perfect excuse for me to put down my thoughts on this wonderful album. I Leave You This is a record that is built on contrasts. Sparse spoken passages sit beside crashing climaxes, electronic pulses hum under sweeping strings and delicate guitar lines, all giving way to these lush walls of sound that elevate your senses. Instead of relying purely on instrumental storytelling, the band introduced vocals/spoken words narrated by the band themselves, and they are used to huge effect. This is an element of the album that brings the whole story to life and breathes huge emotion and intimacy into an album that's already sonically reaching into your mind’s eye.  Each word and every spine-tingling chant makes the record feel all the more intimate even when its arrangements swell to a near-orchestral scale. The production feels deeply personal, almost tactile, especially when you can almost hear every breath that’s taken and live every emotional declaration that’s cried out. 

At its heart, I Leave You This is an album about presence and absence. The music brings you on a soulful journey, sometimes vivid and overwhelming, sometimes faint and fragile. By combining post-rock’s expansive language with deeply personal fragments of humanity, the band turns abstract emotion into something concrete, something you can almost touch.  While the record flows beautifully as a whole, several moments shine with particular intensity. Early tracks introduce the listener gently, drawing them into the reflective mood before opening into grander territory. Elsewhere, darker and heavier passages capture the urgency of grief, surging forward with pulsing rhythms and storm-like guitars. 

But for me the album’s crown jewel is the track, Paul Lynch. And it's not just a highlight, it’s more than that....it’s the album’s beating heart. Named after a close friend of the band, the track functions as both a tribute and turning point. It begins almost weightless with hushed electronics shimmering under airy guitars, creating a dreamlike atmosphere that feels suspended in time. Gradually, layers of sound gather momentum and the drums emerge, as textures coalesce, and the music swells as though grief itself is building in your chest. Then comes the refrain, a collective chant rises, simple and direct, acknowledging a farewell that repeats until it feels almost eternal. The voices are glorious, as if friends are singing to someone in memorial. It is both heartbreaking and uplifting, the sort of moment that makes you close your eyes and breathe deeper. Musically, the song avoids the typical post-rock finale. Instead of a roaring crescendo, the climax glows with total resonance. The guitars shimmer, the synths pulse softly, and the vocals remain the fulcrum, right there, front and centre. By the end, the track feels less like a ritual, but a way of holding on to someone who is gone yet still profoundly present. 

For me, I Leave You This has been a soundtrack to a lot of 2025 and it's a triumph of emotional honesty. It balances grandeur with intimacy, grief with hope, and absence with presence. Overhead, The Albatross have created a record that is both deeply personal and universally resonant. I leave You this is a reminder that music can be more than just background noise, it can be a memory, a tribute, and ultimately a way of healing. If you haven't seen the band live yet, and an opportunity arises, make one of the best decisions you will ever make, and get that ticket.  

I Leave You This | Overhead, The Albatross