Ways of Seeing trace shadows and find light with latest album

Music Review | 11th Oct, 2025 Ways of Seeing

Cork-based songwriter and multi-instrumentalist James O’Donnell launched Ways of Seeing, an ever-evolving musical project born out of an intense eighteen-month creative surge that resulted in not one, but two masterfully crafted albums.

The latest album The Inheritance of Fear is one of those records that quietly gets under your skin. Drawing from literature, personal history, and the emotional fingerprints passed down through generations, the album is a deeply introspective journey through trauma, loss, and the quiet hum of anxiety that lingers in the background of modern life.

This album explores the ways fear is passed down — through generations, relationships, or even the stories we tell ourselves. It’s about the psychological weight of inherited anxieties — how past traumas shape our present, and how we either break free or stay trapped in those cycles. Writing it became a kind of excavation, digging up old memories and reimagining the lives that shaped who we are today. - James O'Donnell

The album took shape after an unexpected eighteen-month stretch of creativity, during which O’Donnell built up a huge collection of home-studio demos. Having previously played in Hush War Cry and Dublin’s Dear Desert, he admits he wasn’t sure he’d ever return to making music. Before our first album, End Comes to Light, I had actually stepped away for a while, he says. But when the pandemic hit, I suddenly had time, and a mountain of voice notes. Songwriting is a habit you can’t really switch off.

Musically, The Inheritance of Fear is a big step forward. O’Donnell’s knack for texture and atmosphere comes alive through shimmering synths, tight percussion, and those signature, soaring guitar lines. It’s an album that manages to sound both intricate and effortlessly fluid, you can hear the experimentation in the interfaces, plug-ins, and virtual amps, but it never feels overworked.

Produced by Christian Best (Susan O’Neill, Mick Flannery, O Emperor), with additional production and mixing from Daniel Fox of Gilla Band and mastering by Jamie Hyland (Mhaol), the record feels like a collaborative evolution, a confident, multi-layered statement that places Ways of Seeing firmly within Ireland’s flourishing alt scene.

With The Inheritance of Fear, O’Donnell doesn’t just explore how the past haunts us, he turns that exploration into something freeing. It’s a reminder that while our fears may be inherited, the way we face them is entirely our own.

Ways Of Seeing - Last Wave

The single, Last Wave, is available through all streaming platforms.

Cover Artwork: Silvio Severino