Since their beginnings in 2019, Dublin four-piece
Sprints have shown a real knack for transforming turmoil into witty, brazen, powerhouse punk; and their highly anticipated debut album ‘
Letter to Self’ encompasses all the elements that make this band one of the most exciting around right now.
The album feels like a lyrical acknowledgement of everything vocalist Karla Chubb has been through in her life. Subject matters are heavy - anxiety, sexuality, religious guilt, suicidal thoughts - yet there’s a force and energy throughout that makes it feel like a real reclamation of power. The heartbeat-like drums of opener ‘
Ticking’, a slow builder delving into feelings of shame and fear, mirrors an emotional spiral with its unsettling guitar riffs and thrashing climax. ‘
Cathedral’ is suitably gothic sounding (there are also gothic elements in ‘Can’t Get Enough Of It’), with Bauhaus-reminiscent verses and cacophonous choruses in which Karla unapologetically examines her experiences as a queer woman.
‘
Shaking Their Hands’ has a more post-punk vibe and shows a softer side to Karla's vocals, while ‘
Adore Adore Adore’ is an infectiously catchy, thundering track which calls out the unfair standards that women in music are held to. Karla is her most vulnerable in the unsettling and more instrumentally sparse ‘
Shadow of a Doubt’, a song which details suicidal thoughts, yet power is never lost - demonstrated by the anthemic and bright ‘
Literary Mind’, the witty sarcasm of ‘
Up and Comer’, and the celebration of autonomy of the jumping titular track.
