The Paper Kites Album Review and European Tour Dates 2026

The Paper Kites: New Album
If You Go There, I Hope You Find It 

I hate to make direct comparisons between bands, it isn’t fair on either, unless it is a tribute band trying to mimic heroes.  The challenge then becomes a question of “If you like this, try this…” without being patronising, or superficial.

I will open this post with the latest single from The Paper Kites for you to have a listen. This is their new single Every Town.

 

The familiarity you will undoubtedly sense when hearing the new single and (when it is out on 23rd January, 2026) the latest album from The Paper Kites may well have come from moments when you have been surreptitiously brought to tears by a sound track sympathetic to an emotional crisis, usually the down, after a particularly poignant scene in a TV series.  Maybe it was something you heard in a hospital drama, such as Grey’s Anatomy, with all the opportunities for pain, joy and reflection inherent in such clinical settings.  Perhaps it was somewhere in a family soap about what goes on behind the curtains of suburbia, This Is Us, springs to mind.  Then, if you don’t, or can’t, or won’t sit through living through the fictional lives of others by watching a TV screen, it might be you have a leaning for gentle, plucking and strumming, swaying rhythms and harmonies.  Who does that sound like?  It sounds like The Paper Kites, who have now become fine exponents of the highest quality screen-oriented empathy-folk-rock known to Hollywood. 

What music you enjoy and when you are best suited to enjoy it will depend on your mood at the time.  The Paper Kites have definitely designed their output for reflection.  They have been fifteen years in the making, refining their sound and shaping their lyrics to mould songs on universal themes: love, death, loss and longing.  It is music that you can settle back down into your sofa with and feel a little sorry for yourself to, or run while you are musing on the progress of your recovery programme.  The songs are not entirely lacking in energy, but as one would imagine, as a TV viewer your main focus will be on character, action, response and the accompanying music is supposed to complement, rather than contrast with the projected on-screen mood.

 

The Paper Kites history, from an indie folk-rock, small venue group of family members and friends, to a verified platinum-downloaded super-group is testimony to the cute ears of soundtrack producers of  subscription service soaps, who have twigged that there is a mid-range of tones and tunes, lyrics and hooks that won’t offend, break new ground, or distract, but are delivered with the utmost diligence and professionalism.

Titles of songs on the latest album, If you go there, I hope you find it give a good idea of what to expect.  Shake off the Rain, is a grit your teeth and get along with it ballad.  When the Lavender Blooms, (their most recent single) uses the lavender bloom as a memory marker of happier times, like an extensionof the story behind the classic country song A Good Year For The Roses, written by Jerry Chesnut and originally sung by George Jones in 1978, then covered more popularly in the UK by Elvis Costello.

 

When reviewing an album, I will play it on repeat for a couple of days, to give it a chance, to feel my way into the artists’ work.  I gave this album an initial spin, but then had to give myself a kick to play it again.  Yes, there are differences between the songs, but the sound of one track easily blends into the others and to get the most from the songs you have to fully concentrate, or else there is risk of it just becoming background music to doing something else. Having said this I did find myself humming along spontaneously to some of these new tracks. The band certainly know how to curate an ear-worm or two. 

The Paper Kites: Melbourne's Answer to Life The Universal and Everything

The Paper Kites are very good at what they do.  It is also reassuring to know that a band who shows such commitment and loyalty to their local fan-base, who have worked so very hard to refine what they are about, are able to make a decent living (I hope!) from doing what they do. I pray that this solid, five-piece band has derived the benefits of being downloaded billions of times.

Buoyed by this online success they are venturing out on a headline tour of the UK and Europe.  How well they convert fans who discovered them sitting on sofas in front of the TV into ticket buying, gig-goers will be a fascinating study.  Here is a band who have been piped into countless homes around the world and then again downloaded on merit in their own right, with music designed to accompany feeling comfortable at home. Will Europeans step out of those warm cosy lounges into late winter nights to see a band that they have discovered in the comfort of their own homes?

What their potential audiences need to remember is that The Paper Kites came to fruition doing the hard yards in the music venues of Melbourne and they built their original fanbase through entertaining hard-nosed live audiences in a cosmopolitan city.  Consequently, their headline tour will be well put together and worth seeing.  The band know what they are at.

I wouldn’t expect The Paper Kites to sing about the climate crisis, the fires ravaging Australia, the suffocation of the Great Barrier Reef, or the need for us to eat more veg and less meat, or even the benefits of taking a walk, because they have found that crooning about the everyday, the universal themes, is the way to tap an international market for nice music and The Paper Kites do nice music very well.  The Paper Kites have gone there and have found it.

If You Go There, I Hope You Find It by The Paper Kites is released on all streaming platforms on 23rd January, 2026 

 

The band is heading out to headline a tour of Europe with tickets on sale now for the following shows:

  

The Paper Kites 2026 UK/EU Headline Tour

 

February 17 - Belfast, United Kingdom - Limelight

February 18 - Dublin, Ireland - 3Olympia Theatre

February 19 - Glasgow, United Kingdom - SWG3

February 20 - Manchester, United Kingdom - O2 Ritz

February 21 - Leeds, United Kingdom - Stylus

February 23 - Bristol, United Kingdom - Electric Bristol

February 24 - London, United Kingdom - Roundhouse

 

February 26 - Paris, France - Le Trianon

February 27 - Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique Main Hall

February 28 - Tilburg, Netherlands - 013

March 1 - Amsterdam, Netherlands - Melkweg Max

March 3 - Munich, Germany - Muffathalle

March 4 - Berlin, Germany - Metropol

March 5 - Hamburg, Germany - Fabrik

March 6 - Copenhagen, Denmark - Vega

March 7 - Oslo, Norway – Rockefeller

Spencer Ide

19th January 2026