A spirited dose of soul-searching heartland rock, “Lately” finds Limerick’s Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets turning existential doubt into a soaring, urgent, and deeply human anthem of inner reckoning and emotional release.
for fans of Bruce Springsteen, Sam Fender, Catfish and the Bottlemen
follow our Today’s Song(s) playlist
“Lately” – Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets
“‘Cause ‘lately, I’ve been living life the wrong way…” Few moments feel as deeply human, and as dramatically impassioned, as when Dylan Flynn sings those words – weathered yet hopeful, heavy yet full of light.
A sweeping, heartfelt anthem that channels the open-road ache of Springsteen and the cinematic intensity of Sam Fender, Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets’ recent single “Lately” feels pulled from the classic rock songbook. It’s passionate, purposeful, and pure – a song that doesn’t just speak to the soul, but jolts it awake.
Independently released in late August, “Lately” is Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets’ second single of the year – and the nucleus of their upcoming EP, I’ve Been Living Life the Wrong Way (out November 7). Arriving less than a year after their self-produced 2024 album the story after they’re gone, “Lately” signals an exciting new chapter for the Irish five-piece – one driven by sharpened songwriting and a bold, dynamic sonic palette.
Active since 2020, the Limerick-based band – Dylan Flynn (lead vocals/guitar), Marty Ryan (lead guitar/backing vocals), Killian Moran (bass/backing vocals), Paul Breen (drums), and Chris Britton (keys/saxophone) – have earned widespread local acclaim for their spirited, heart-on-sleeve rock songs. They’ve sold out headline shows across the UK and Ireland, landed slots at SXSW and Electric Picnic, and continue to grow their profile as one of Ireland’s most compelling rising acts.
Where their earlier work leaned into atmospheric indie rock and intimate introspection, “Lately” feels bigger, brighter, and bolder – the sound of a band stretching their wings. Flynn and company tap into the widescreen emotionality of classic heartland rock while holding tight to the raw sincerity that’s defined their catalog to date. It’s a confident evolution: Restless yet grounded, nostalgic yet newly energized, and unmistakably the product of a group growing into their own voice.
Building on the emotional charge and melodic richness of their recent work, “Lately” feels bigger, brighter, and bolder – the sound of a band stretching their wings.
Flynn and company tap into the anthemic sweep of classic rock while holding tight to the raw sincerity that’s defined their catalog to date. It’s a confident evolution: Restless yet grounded, nostalgic yet newly energized, and unmistakably the product of a group growing into their own voice.
You can hear that shift the moment “Lately” begins. Built on a driving pulse of guitars, drums, and keys, the song soars with the help of a glowing saxophone line that bursts through the mix like sunlight after a storm. It adds warmth and color to the band’s full-bodied arrangement, wrapping around Flynn’s voice with an almost spiritual clarity. The result is something that feels both timeless and immediate – heartland rock for the modern age, balancing nostalgia with urgency.
Lyrically, “Lately” frames its sweeping sound with stark, searching introspection. Flynn sketches scenes of emotional numbness and existential drift – death walking through the door; empathy slipping away; regret burning like a flash in the dark. His imagery is vivid and unnerving, tracing the uneasy edges of self-doubt and spiritual fatigue. Even in its softest lines, there’s a sense of wrestling with the world’s weight: Trying to stay tender when everything feels cold, and fighting to keep the mind alight when darkness creeps in at every turn.
I can taste the moment that
death walked through the door
Break me off some empathy, a feeling I ignore
Gripping tight your tongue,
your lips sit motionless
Fire off a gun, fill it with regret
Take a thought and put it out
That flame is sure to burn
Lighten up your mind
Darkness at every turn
“This song ended up being the first track I wrote after finishing our last album,” Flynn tells Atwood Magazine. “It was one that crept up on me slowly, working on it bit by bit. I remember on our last tour, I used to play it in soundcheck. At the time I was listening to a lot of ‘70s and ‘80s American Rock, stuff that my dad would have introduced me to. I was really getting into Petty, Springsteen, Fleetwood Mac, that kind of thing – and I wanted to make a song that felt classic but modern at the same time.”
That lineage rings clear in every note. There’s a grounded poetry to Flynn’s writing – vivid and unflinching, yet tinged with vulnerability. The chorus stands as the song’s emotional heartbeat: “‘Cause lately, I’ve been living life the wrong way / ‘cause lately, I’ve been feeling kinda lost…” It’s a captivating crescendo, a call for the disillusioned and the restless, for anyone trying to hold on to meaning while the world keeps spinning faster. Flynn doesn’t shout from a pedestal; he sings from the middle of the storm, and in doing so, he invites us to see ourselves in his confusion, his questioning, his fight to stay upright.
‘Cause lately, I’ve been living life the wrong way
‘Cause lately, I’ve been feeling kinda lost
A drowned reflection on the floor
Your mind is showing on your skin
‘Cause lately, I’ve been feeling kinda lost
“At its core the lyrics and themes are very dark,” Flynn shares. “It discusses navigating through life, differentiating what’s right and wrong, and wondering if anything you do makes a difference in the world – classic nihilism. But to contrast that, the music has a breezy up-tempo feel that makes me feel like I’m in California in 1978.”
That tension – between darkness and light, despair and drive – gives “Lately” its power. The song reaches its zenith in a gripping breakdown where Flynn howls “When the world begins to end…” holding the final word like a feral, defiant roar. It’s cathartic and commanding – the kind of moment that pins you in place and fills the air around you with something electric.
At the heart of “Lately” is a quiet, persistent fear: That time is slipping by, that the world is burning at the edges, and that we might never quite figure out how to live well before it’s too late.
Flynn grapples with existential dread not as a distant philosophical idea, but as something close-quartered and bodily – felt in the bones, pulsing beneath the skin. The song reads like an inventory of invisible wounds: Numbness, regret, disillusionment, the frantic search for meaning in a society that feels increasingly indifferent to individual lives.
It’s a tension that feels uniquely of this moment. In 2025, the lines between personal struggle and global instability blur more easily than ever – every private thought seems to echo against a larger, shaky world. Flynn’s questions register not as defeat, but as a deeply human attempt to stay awake to reality without being crushed by it. That reckoning – honest, unpolished, and unafraid to name its despair – is what gives “Lately” its weight. The song recognizes that clarity doesn’t always look like answers; sometimes, it’s simply refusing to look away.
‘Cause they don’t care about your sons
Or the signs that come in waves
So I’ll stand upon a bridge
Watch my life float away
You believe in a miracle
A changing of minds
But they all feed the cycle
Made to leave us all behind
So I will bite and I will bark
I won’t leave it up to you
But they’ll still turn to listen
to those that are so few
Are we screaming in a vacuum
Void of love and common sense
Or are we waiting on a moment
When the world begins to end
There’s conviction in every corner of this song, from the raw rasp in Dylan Flynn’s voice to the unrelenting churn of the rhythm section beneath him.
“Lately” isn’t about resolution so much as release – about recognizing the chaos, standing inside it, and finding clarity in the noise.
It’s that blend of grit and grace that makes Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets one of Ireland’s most exciting rising bands: Storytellers who turn doubt into devotion, and confusion into communion. “Lately” feels like a rallying cry for the lost – an anthem for anyone trying, still, to find their way.
It’s a moment to breathe – a bit of comfort in the mess of trying to figure it all out.
Stream “Lately” out now, and be sure to dive into Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets’ new EP I’ve Been Living Life the Wrong Way, out November 7.
— —
:: stream/purchase I’ve Been Living Life the Wrong Way here ::
:: connect with Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets here ::
— —
“Lately” – Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets
— — — —
Connect to Dylan Flynn and the Dead Poets on
Facebook, 𝕏, TikTok, Instagram
Discover new music on Atwood Magazine
© Jamie Moore
© Jamie Moore
:: Today’s Song(s) ::
follow our daily playlist on Spotify
:: Stream Dylan Flynn & The Dead Poets ::
