It’s tempting to compare Cork five-piece Cardinals to compatriot luminaries like The Pogues, given the healthy doses of accordion that highlight the band’s Irish folk accents. Add to that the fact that their debut full-length, Masquerade (So Young Records), sways and swerves like when you’ve had half a dozen too many and are keeping one eye closed in an effort to keep from seeing double. But in truth, the record is smarter than it is swarthy, and the band actually didn’t drink the whole time they were making it.

Rather than intoxication, the Cardinals’ collective pot is stirred by emotional upheaval, with vocalist Euan Manning wearing his heart on his sleeve like Conor Oberst while singing into the abyss like Thom Yorke. It is that thread of existential grappling that cuts through the tumult and gives the band its distinguishing edge. On opener “She Makes Me Real,” when Manning sings, “It hurts beyond belief,” you get the sense that he truly is reeling. Similarly, on “Big Empty Heart,” the contrast between waves of guitar and quiet recessions makes the song’s moments of introspection stand out all the more. Closer “As I Breathe” shows Manning at his most vulnerable, however, with none of the cacophony found elsewhere to break the unease of lines like, “I had assumed that you had left me here to die.” It’s just the last of many emotionally raw moments that make Masquerade a startling debut.