Sprints set the standard for 2024.
Tired are we? January blues already? Feeling a bit hungover from the festive period?
Tough. Snap out of it. And if you don’t do it yourself, then Sprints will do it for you.
Slowly but surely over the last couple of years, the Dublin-four piece have been accumulating songs and honing their craft while supporting the likes of Yard Act and Suede, alongside two well-received EPs and a sold-out show at the 800-capacity Scala. And now, for the album. Wrestling the ‘big indie hope’ mantle for themselves at the first opportunity 2024 provides is testament to both the confidence of the group and of the debut album.
For on Letter To Self, singer, guitarist and lead-songwriter Karla Chubb confronts inner turmoil head-on, one consequence of a childhood spent in Germany (after being born in Dublin), perpetually feeling out-of-step with the world. Inspired by the anger which fuelled Savages – and Jehnny Beth in particular – the album is primarily a gnarly scream at the world.
And what a scream. Chubb possesses a titanic voice and a larynx-wrecking range which is deployed sparingly but effectively across the 11 tracks, including current single Shadow Of A Doubt. More controlled and measured than much else that surrounds it (albeit no less motoring), Chubb comes to terms with suicidal thoughts emanating from past trauma – begging, ‘Can you help me stop the screams?’. Heart-breaking in sentiment yet powerful in delivery, the ethereal guitar licks give way to one of many big choruses and the song points to a healthy future.
Yet enough of that, what about the present? Opener Ticking bristles with anticipation as the drumming countdown prepares the listener for the explosions to come, Chubb uttering, ‘Maybe I should do it better. Maybe I should try it harder’, before some German-language lyrics as a threatening maelstrom of indie-rock rumbles beneath. Similarly, the fretboard gets a good scraping on Heavy as the band hold themselves back once again before hammering another rip-roaring chorus into life.
Aptly named with its cavernous drumming and snagging guitar suggesting the title was in fact the recording location, Cathedral delves into sexuality and Catholic guilt (‘Maybe living’s easy, maybe dying’s the same’) with ferocity, the guitars like a hail of bullets. Meanwhile, Adore Adore Adore will be familiar to many but still swaggers as it did in 2023, a dark Distillers-esque romp outlining the hurdles that women in music – unfairly – navigate.
In contrast, Literary Mind – also a previous single – radiates with positivity in both lyrics (being a love song) and musicianship, guitarist Colm O’Reilly prodding and sweeping proceedings along, while the solo on A Wreck (A Mess) is one to lose your mind to. Consisting of a breakneck pace and frequent tempo changes, (without sacrificing the melody), it’s delivered with wild abandon, its unpredictability perhaps reflecting the subject matter (Chubb’s ADHD diagnosis).
The eerie Shaking Their Hands (‘It’s been a long day, it’s been a long night, it’s been a long life’) is more contemplative, on which Chubb once again conveys desperation through her vocals, while the marauding Can’t Get Enough Of It spirals viciously as the singer recalls another trauma from the past (‘This is a living nightmare and I am living so scared. And I can’t sleep and I can’t breathe’), the listener viscerally feeling the suffocation.
Sprints should end all their gigs on the stuttering punk of Up And Comer, a song about music industry sexism which feels like following a fuse from being lit to explosion, not least with Chubb’s incredible vocals once again. Lastly, the closing title-track is defiant, hopeful (‘I am alive!’ contrasting against the opening track’s question) and fittingly thunderous conclusion.
Described as an ‘exploration of pain and perseverance’, Letter To Self’s themes of self-reflection seem fitting for a new year, although you’ll be hearing these songs long after January has faded away.