Picture This

Hailing from Ireland, the alternative outfit Picture This crafts anthemic rock tracks infused with pop sensibilities reminiscent of the 1975, Coldplay, and Mumford & Sons. Emerging toward the end of the 2010s, the quartet issued its first full-length album, Picture This, which immediately reached the summit of the Irish charts in 2017. Building on that pastoral foundation with added commercial gloss, the group returned in 2019 with MDRN LV, another record that claimed the top spot.

Childhood friends Ryan Hennessy, handling vocals and guitar, and Jimmy Rainsford on drums established the band after growing up together in Athy, County Kildare, and sharing the same school. They expanded the lineup in 2015 by bringing in fellow musicians Owen Cardiff on guitar and Cliff Deane on bass. That October Hennessy captured “Take My Hand” using only his iPhone before posting it online, where the clip quickly surpassed a million views. The resulting attention prompted the band to shift its first live appearance from Dublin’s Grand Social to the Academy’s bigger room, making Picture This the venue’s first act ever to sell out an opening show.

After completing an Irish tour, Hennessy and Rainsford revealed plans for a debut EP that they would self-produce and track at Rainsford’s home studio. The resulting five-song, self-titled release, which featured “Take My Hand,” entered the Irish Album Chart at number one. Capitalizing on that momentum, the group unveiled its opening 2017 single, “Never Change,” followed by “Everything I Need” and “95,” before headlining Longitude Festival in Dublin that July. Later in the year they delivered their self-titled debut album, which again topped the Irish charts and spawned the additional single “Addicted to You,” their strongest chart performer to that point. The standalone track “This Morning” improved on that placement by reaching number six in 2018.

In 2019 the success of “One Drink” and “Everything or Nothing” paved the way for the band’s sophomore album, MDRN LV, whose glossy, radio-ready sound marked a decisive move toward the pop aesthetic of Walk the Moon and OneRepublic. The effort became the group’s second consecutive chart-topper. Entering the new decade, Picture This issued the singles “Troublemaker” and “Things Are Different.”