It Won't Always Be Like This by Inhaler // 5 Year Anniversary Album Review
Inhaler's debut album, It Won't Always Be Like This, is deeply indicative of their desire to make something that felt reflective of the moment in history it was created in and served as such a strong introduction to these fresh, young voices in rock music. Even just five years in hindsight, it already feels like such a time capsule in many ways, thematically capturing what the world was experiencing in real time in an attempt to make sense of it all and push back against the injustices surrounding them.
It remains among their best work, shaped by the direction they were beginning to carve out for themselves and the future for the band. So much of this music reflects who they were at that point and where they were headed artistically, hinting at the influences and stylistic choices they would continue to sharpen and develop with each record that followed. Each song is anchored by these big choruses and largely forward thinking, optimistic ideals that almost give off a sense of defiance in the hopefulness it exudes throughout much of it. In their strongest moments, Inhaler is carried by their collective propulsion and desire to push onward and upward, which goes on to shape the core of this entire project.
The title track, "It Won't Always Be Like This", was the first song the band wrote together in 2016 when they were still in high school. They ended up recording it and initially releasing it in 2019, before re‑recording it for this album in 2021. Like much of this album, even though it was written years before the pandemic and all of the horrific world events of 2020, it truly did end up taking on a new life and meaning in the context of the time they re‑recorded the song and put it out again as part of a larger project titled after it. "There's a sense of optimism on this album and the song 'It Won't Always Be Like This" is the main catalyst for that," lead singer Eli Hewson said in an interview with UDiscoverMusic. "We kept coming back to that title."
"It's a teenage song about a girl I liked, but when the pandemic struck it took on this whole different life," Eli added in an interview with Hot Press in 2021. "The world is on fire, but here's some hope for the future." The mantra that this too shall pass is so powerful, and it continues to be such an anthem in their discography for that very reason.
"My Honest Face" goes in tandem with the title track and the way it feels like most reflective of Inhaler as a band and their quintessential sound. Even after all these years, these each stands out as the clearest and strongest examples of how charismatic they were at performers by that point already and where they would continue to take it from there.
"It fits into the theme of getting lost and finding yourself again, because it was all about finding out what you wanted to say onstage and what kind of people we wanted to be as performers, and that first experience getting up there and that kind of shock. So it's an important part of the story of the album," Eli said in an interview with Apple Music - noting the significance of "My Honest Face" for the band's development. "I could be Elvis on a Tuesday night," he sings in the opening verse. "I can look good in a certain light, so don't look too close at me tonight".
Inhaler is built upon a range of influences, with many more contemporary bands like Arctic Monkeys, The 1975 and The Strokes standing out as obvious points of inspiration for them, with flashes of Ramones, The Who, and The Clash also are prevalent. These different eras of rock are blended into something distinctly their own and indicative of who Inhaler are and the space they occupy in modern rock today.
Much of the album was shaped around the response to their early shows, performing versions of many of these songs live as they were making them. It was also largely recorded in the studio during the early pandemic period, which is reflected in the escapism and desire to be anywhere else, especially on songs like "Slide Out the Window" and "Cheer Up Baby". Again, even as many of the songs were written pre‑pandemic, they also ended up taking on a new life and meaning in the wake of everything happening at the time, becoming unintentionally reflective of our collective experience.
"When the first lockdown happened I thought, 'You can either sit around moaning at the injustice of it all or make this work to your advantage', so I wrote... a lot," Eli said in an interview with Hot Press. "It's not a 'lockdown record' but the heightened emotions we all felt during it definitely fed into [it]."
The distinct period of intense political and societal turmoil is at the center of a song like "My King Will Be Kind," which became their way of capturing the current point of history we were (and in many ways still are) going through in real time. It's more of a larger commentary on online extremists, as well as the misogyny and hatred that festers and is encouraged on certain corners of the internet as a whole.
It Won't Always Be Like This isn't necessarily even overtly political though, as most songs were written from a different vantage point but done so in an ambiguous way that allows room for a variety of interpretation. This point of reference allows the music to be heard and felt by different listeners, each able to take something unique from it in their own ways. It makes the work open‑ended and something the listener can take as they will, depending on their own interpretations or emotional proximity to the themes.
So much of the collective angst that harbors within any young adult trying to make sense of themselves and the world around them echoes throughout this album in numerous ways. Those feelings again are especially present on "When It Breaks", a song that captures the tension building up within all of us at that age, especially at this current point in time, and is then complemented by the softer moments of the record like "Strange Time To Be Alive". That song is the most literal way to acknowledge just how strange early adulthood can be, to put it lightly, and the struggles we all face in the process of growing up. Through it all, this music is underpinned by the belief that change is possible and the overarching mantra of It Won't Always Be Like This reinforces that idea every time.
It Won’t Always Be Like This closes the chapter on the coming‑of‑age journey this album took them on, bringing together everything they made up to that point - from being teenagers in school writing songs together to entering adulthood in their early 20s and stepping into the next chapter.
Thanks for reading! I have written about Inhaler's music many times through the years, all of which are linked here and below. Check out my full experience seeing them live and hearing many of these songs live for the first time - along with my in-depth review of their 2025 album Open Wide. ★
Photo Credit: Polydor, Lillie Eiger, Douglas Hart, Inhaler
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