Sprints erupted out of Ireland last year with their critically acclaimed corker of a debut album Letter To Self, which saw them playing bigger and bigger gigs and plays on both 6 Music and Radio 1, not the easiest of dual bedfellows to appeal to.
But the music biz wheel never stops turning, so the usual quick turnaround on making album number two brings us All That Is Over and the worry that when a second record appears so soon, especially with a band that seem to have spent most of the time on tour, there’s the danger that it could feel rushed, or even worse, the ramblings of an exhausted band (hiya, Fontaines D.C)
Thankfully, in the case of Sprints, this couldn’t be further from the truth. From the first moments that the needle comes down onto the brooding, menacing drum beat of opener ‘Abandon’, it feels like a set of songs with a verve and enthusiasm of it’s own. In many ways, presumably due to a change of guitarist in-between records, it has all the feels of a second debut.
‘To The Bones’ builds and builds before it springs into life and when it kicks in, it’s the first take-your-breath-away moment on an album stacked full of them. Lead single ‘Descartes’ came roaring out of the traps, and it turns not to be even close to the furious-ist point of a startlingly energetic record. They sound like a band desperate to play music. That can only be a sensational thing.
They play it straighter down the line on the likes of ‘Need’ ‘Rage’ and ‘Beg’, thrashing indie-pop singles, with joyous guitars, and vocalist Karla‘s distinctive tone elevating each track above what else is out there, the songs seem more instant and accessible than those on their the debut, stripping down the messages to their simplest lyrical form, whilst still returning the knack of making the subject matter of the state of the world sound like they are going to save us from it.
As Karla puts it, “You look at your phone and you’re like, ‘What is happening out there?!’ The world is so dystopian and we’re on the edge of a fucking apocalypse. the world has never been uglier. I was writing every day because there was so much going on. The first record was so riddled with self-consciousness and a need to prove myself in a very male-dominated industry that really held me back in a lot of ways. And now, on this album, I could not give less of a fuck.”
And it sounds like it too. Side two of the record sees them really pouring it on, ‘Something’s Gonna Happen’ roars along with a snarling, defiant roaring chorus, like Benefits covering ‘The Message’, ‘Pieces’ roars along at a breakneck speed, whereas ‘Better’, whilst a touch slower, is no less urgent, a duet between Karla and bassist Sam, which screams future single.
They save the best till last, ‘Coming Alive’ gives out the same joyous feeling that you get from the song that very much seems to have influenced it (The Walkmen’s ‘The Rat’), before six-minute closer ‘Desire’ has the same mood as the opener, the fear that there’s something very wrong but not sure what, the swirling fury of the last two minutes are the perfect way to end an album that begs repeated listenings.
Nothing rushed or thrown-together here, no tour fatigue, just an ever more confident band knocking out a second glorious album in the space of a year. Quite the achievement.
