It can be something of a daunting task to keep up with all the excellent bands coming out of the UK and Ireland these days, even just zeroing in on the post-punk genre. That said, Dublin act Sprints are one that ought to be moved to the top of any list. They first grabbed attention in 2021 with their Manifesto EP, and the Modern Job EP the next year. Fuzzy guitars and tight drumming stood out among the crowd of bands by virtue of skillful arrangement, and singer/guitarist Karla Chubb’s head-turning vocals were more than enough to push them firmly into the spotlight. The first inkling they let slip of what would eventually become 2024’s Letter to Self was the single ‘Literary Mind’, a truly singular track that I personally held in heavy rotation over the course of the ten months between that and the release of the full record at the dawn of this year.
With the unleashing of their debut LP has come the band’s largest outing in North America yet. But notably, when they take the stage at The Sinclair in Cambridge, Letter to Self technically is no longer their latest release. That honor had just changed hands the prior evening to a new track called ‘Feast’; the Boston-area audience is the first to have had the opportunity to listen on their service of choice before hearing it in person, though it’s a treat no matter which side of recent developments you’re on. The night begins as the album does with ‘Ticking’, its deadpan vocals and threateningly-patient drums and guitars heralding the sonic explosion to come. Chubb weaves in a little bit of German, a language she picked up living in Germany as a kid, and in speaking to label City Slang about the album, the band credits French singer Jehnny Beth of English band Savages with inspiring their sound and lyrical tone. And it’s their countryman Daniel Fox of Gilla Band who guided the album behind the board, as he did much of their earlier work – all told, an impressive continental network of influences just looking at the past five or ten years, to say nothing of the long lineage of punk bands of which Sprints can count themselves a part.
Chubb’s writing, and the instrumental fury that accompanies it, is spurred by frustrations both inward and outward. ‘I’m in a Band’, which they play early, is perhaps a hope to finally quell an annoyingly-recurring question, and Letter to Self’s title is a clear statement of purpose. ‘Heavy’ evokes the overwhelming, suffocating physical sensations of anxiety; ‘Shadow of a Doubt’ is about looking for an out as you fend off the voices in your own head. Both are standout moments of the set, as is ‘Adore Adore Adore’ with its chorus of, “they never called me b-b-b-beautiful / they only called me insane,” and time and again they demonstrate that no matter how negative or dark the emotions that underpin these songs, they ensure that they’re easy to dance and thrash around to in a darkened room. Chubb walks the stage, twirling her microphone around on songs where she doesn’t have her guitar; when she does she’s often found syncing up with new guitarist Zac Stephenson, at one point both of them standing back-to-back during an animated instrumental passage. Stephenson joined after the departure of founding member Colm O’Reilly back in March, but seems to be a perfect choice to create these emotional outpourings via the six-string, be it in the form of angular, anxious jabs or overwhelming whirlwinds of sound.
Reaching their newest track around the midsection of the set, Chubb prefaces it by saying, “It’s about being gay… obviously.” She cracks a smile – her lyrics have long dealt with her queerness, something that can often be dicey in such a religious place as Ireland – but ‘Feast’ comes out swinging with confidence. Like in ‘Literary Mind’, Chubb’s passionate delivery is at its peak describing an impressive “She” figure. This one inverts a bit of religious imagery, and even the single’s cover art features a classically-rendered nude wrapped by a snake, both eyeing the viewer. Following this newest song, she talks between songs about the band’s origins, playing in the basement of drummer Jack Callan five years ago; you can hear the evolution in both the band’s sound, as well as in her lyrics. Back in 2021, ‘Drones’ ended with Chubb pondering who she – or anyone – might want to be, a loud rumination on envy and bitterness. ‘Letter to Self’ (the track) seems more concerned with predecessors than peers, but even still its closing resounds with yet more well-earned confidence. Chubb says twice of the band in the course of the evening: “We make a lot of noise, we make a lot of noise that matters.” And by exploring mental wellness, identity, and relationships – and sounding damn good doing it – that statement surely stands up to any level of scrutiny.
Photos and review by Collin Heroux
