Arienas bottle the rush of young love on new single ‘Those Were The Days’

Arienas tap straight into the emotional rush of early romance on ‘Those Were The Days’, a bright, guitar-driven indie-rock single built around memory, longing and the desire to rewind to the moment everything still felt new.

Written by frontman Sam during the first holiday of a new relationship, the song has an immediate sense of both place and feeling. But instead of approaching its nostalgia from a distance, the band capture it while the memory still feels close enough to touch. It gives the track a youthful urgency, especially as the chorus looks back on nights out, freedom and the simple thrill of being completely wrapped up in somebody else.

Musically, the Fife four-piece keep things direct. Driving guitars, a strong rhythmic push and a chorus designed for live singalongs give ‘Those Were The Days’ the kind of lift that suits a band who have been steadily building their reputation on stage. There's plenty of classic indie-rock energy here, but the song avoids sounding generic because the emotional core is so clearly personal.

And it's that balance between intimacy and scale that gives the track its strongest quality. The verses carry the reflective side of the story, while the chorus opens everything up, turning private memory into something more communal.

The single also arrives at a useful point in Arienas’ development. After moving quickly from local shows into wider UK dates and festival appearances, the band sound increasingly comfortable matching their live energy with more focused songwriting.

Energetic, melodic and warmly nostalgic, it's another convincing step forward from a young Scottish band whose momentum is becoming difficult to ignore.