Cork trio The Last Vinci have dropped “Better to Never Know”, the third single from their forthcoming album 15 Minutes at a Time, due 17 April via Narrow Door Records. It arrives like a boot to the ribs wrapped in existential doubt, continuing the band’s habit of dragging heavy riffs around equally heavy ideas, then pretending it is all perfectly normal behaviour.
This is alternative and stoner rock in the old sense of the terms: thick, slow-burning, and slightly sunburnt from staring too long at itself. The new track does not bother with comfort. It circles the idea of routine as a kind of trap, then quietly suggests that escape might not feel like liberation at all. More like panic with better lighting.
At the centre of the song is a simple but unpleasant thought: what if not knowing is easier than knowing? Guitarist and vocalist Alex frames it as a kind of slow-motion awakening, where familiarity becomes a cage you only notice when it starts rattling.
“Better to Never Know captures the idea that many of us live as if we’re stuck on a wheel-safe, repetitive, and unaware of what we’re missing. The song imagines the moment that illusion breaks, and the thought that maybe it’s better not to realize how beautiful life could be, because then you’d have to face how much of it you’ve already lost.” – Alex [Guitar and vocals]
It is not exactly the kind of sentiment designed to get people dancing, unless they are dancing to avoid thinking. Musically, the track leans into that same tension, with a weighty, grinding arrangement that never quite resolves into anything reassuring. The band seems content to leave the discomfort hanging in the air like cigarette smoke in a rehearsal room that has not seen daylight since 2009.
The single arrives with a music video directed by Matteo Casalegno and edited by Nicola Martini, which takes the song’s idea and runs it through a slightly absurd laboratory nightmare. Alex and Brasko are cast as lab guinea pigs, observed by doctors while living a bland, repetitive existence that passes for comfort.
Then comes the twist, if it can be called that. The pair are released into nature and immediately start malfunctioning in the opposite direction. Freedom does not read as relief here. It reads as overload. Bright skies, open space, and suddenly nowhere obvious to put your hands.
The video leans into fast pacing and dark humour, but the underlying message stays sharp enough: sometimes the thing you call safety is just ignorance with better branding.
The Last Vinci will take “Better to Never Know” on the road this May, first supporting Knives in Ireland before co-headlining a UK run with Terminals.
Irish dates include Limerick (Dolans) on 1 May, Waterford (Luca Records) on 2 May, and Dublin (Academy 2) on 3 May.
The UK leg begins 13 May in Worcester at Copper Beech and winds through Bristol, Southend-on-Sea, Brighton, London, Birmingham, Cambridge, Sowerby Bridge, Glasgow, Hull, Nottingham, and Lincoln, finishing 30 May at Southside in Lincoln.
Another tour, another batch of cities, another chance for loud guitars to briefly convince everyone that meaning might still be recoverable.
IRELAND (supporting Knives)
May 2026
1st Limerick – Dolans
2nd Waterford – Luca Records
3rd Dublin – Academy 2
UK (with Terminals)
May
13th Worcester – Copper Beech
14th Bristol – the Croft
15th Southend-on-Sea – Fickle Pickle
20th Brighton – Dalston
21th London – Blondies
22nd Birmingham – Centrala
23rd Cambridge – The six six bar
24th Sowerby Bridge – Black Pig
27th Glasgow – Hug and Pint
28th Hull – Adelphi Club
29th Nottingham – JT Soar
30th Lincoln – Southside