Photo Credit: Conor Diggin
“We are in a very special moment here in Ireland, with brilliant young, creative artists… Calum Agnew is one of those admirable talents… a truly committed musician who has been writing songs ever since he was a young child. He really has enormous potential.” – President Michael D. Higgins, 2025
Dublin, Ireland – 22 August 2025: Following a breakout year as Hotpress’ New Local Hero 2025, sold-out shows and packed festival appearances, soul-pop frontman Calum Agnew returns with his most emotionally exposed release yet.
‘At Least‘ is a devastating slow-burn about longing, self-worth, and the ache for bare-minimum affection.
Stripping everything back over a smoky jazz-leaning piano for the opening verse, Calum vulnerably lays it all on the table:
“I don’t ask you to love me. I ask you to want me, at least.”
As the track progressively builds, drip-feeding in bass, strings, drums, guitar, and then the crescendo of the saxophone, trumpet, backing vocals and Calum’s spellbinding vocals, one’s heart all but breaks for him.
Written from a place of emotional exhaustion and also through the lens of gay hookup culture, ‘At Least‘ paints the portrait of someone settling for scraps. They’re stuck in a relationship they know isn’t right, but clinging to the brief relief of feeling wanted, whenever the individual decides to offer that to them. It’s a powerful depiction of the throws of desire, and the contortions we put ourselves through to avoid loneliness.
“You get to a point where you’re so desperate to feel something, love isn’t even the goal anymore — you just want to feel wanted.” Calum shares.
The track can also be viewed through another lens.
“There’s a lot of self-deprecation in it. In my experience of trying to navigate hook-up culture as a young, gay man, I wrote the song at a time when I was finding it difficult to find someone who had the same interests as me – a monogamous relationship.”
The introspection, songwriting ability, performance and vocal range of Calum Agnew marks the arrival of an artist with immense global potential who is sure to be heavily booked over the coming year.
“There is a feeling nobody can shake off: some day, and probably sooner than later, this man is going to be huge… The euphoria of knowing they’ve just seen something really, really special lingering in the bones.” – Hot Press, on Calum Agnew’s sold-out headline show in Whelan’s Upstairs, back in May 2025.
With the A New Local Hero backing, packed festival slots at Beyond The Pale and Stendhal (with Electric Picnic to come), as well as his collaboration with renowned producer Philip Magee (Kodaline, The Script, Gavin James, Miles Kane) on this track, Agnew is only ramping up his 2025 even more, with a view to dominate Ireland’s soul-pop scene in 2026. Word has it a debut EP is in the works also.
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