SPRINTS - Letter To Self

Album Review

Jan 5

Letter to Self is packed with poignant and cutting lyrics, electric musical moments, and, despite its overall bleakness, packed with fun.

Letter to Self is in a hurry, a journey of rapid exploration, but it maintains a conscious path for its runner, giving sonic breaks so we can finish.

The debut full-length album from Dublin Garage Punk rockers SPRINTS packs a punch. It's an all-out sprint, top to bottom, littered with cathartic outbursts and explosive moments. If nothing else, Letter to Self is a bold shout-out loud and fearless statement, a firm boulder placed in the punk genre of 2024 that is here to stay.

You can tell lead vocalist Karla Chubb is a fan of repetition. Repetition in lyrics, repetition in riffs, repetition in structure. It never feels repetitive. Instead, it builds on itself, increasing both urgency and momentum across the 39-minute record. The lyrics sit somewhere between 'bleak' and 'honest,' rarely looking to the future with optimism but instead staying and observing the moment.

From the opening "Maybe I should…" lyrics on the eerie and brooding starter "Ticking," - Chubb spends much of the album asking questions:

"Am I alive?"
"Do you ever feel like the room is heavy?"
"Am I everything you wanted now? Or am I everything you despise?"
"Do you adore me? Or have I disgraced with your very eyes?"

"Ticking" is the music manifestation of unease, uncertainty, fear of the future, the alarm bells in your body going off before your brain can process them. The fun doesn't stop there. Next comes the rough and rowdy "Heavy," before you know it, we're knee-deep in the race of Letter to Self.

The strategy of posing questions instead of answering them brings a lot of curiosity and engagement throughout the album. It anchors the frantic and all-out energy from the rest of her bandmates - the active bass of Sam McCann, the locomotive drums of Jack Callan, the well-placed moments of tumult by guitarist Colm O'Reilly, it all works together in an ugly, dirty blender.

We get our first "breather" in four tracks on "Shaking Their Hands" - a bluesy sound dipped in Hole vocals. It's a great example of how simple songwriting can build a massive sound through careful toppings of ideas. The song is a critical moment on the album - allowing you to bend over with your hands on your knees after a long sprint. Letter to Self is in a hurry, a journey of rapid exploration, but it maintains a conscious path for its runner, giving sonic breaks so we can finish.

Songs limp to the finish as well on Letter to Self. Exhausted by their own journey, each song typically finishes with one instrument left standing to play us out slowly and gradually. There are a handful of rally cries and large screams of vocal explosions like on "Shadow of Doubt," where a patient build emphasizes the giant cackle from Chubb into the chorus.

Letter to Self often leans on repetition, with several of the songs employing similar paths, the early builds to an all-out blitz and back. However, SPRINTS does a fantastic job sprinkling in their flair and unique riffs. On "Can't Get Enough of It," the gentle bouncing of the two-minute intro shifts into a heavy moshpit of a breakdown, giving the listener one of the album's best moments due to its unexpected heaviness.

The closer ends with the letter written to herself. Here, Chubb puts her past down on paper and into a song, leaving it behind with the pain of past experiences. It's a beautiful conclusion and a way to summarize the album. Letter to Self is packed with poignant and cutting lyrics, electric musical moments, and, despite its overall bleakness, packed with fun.