After a 6th place finish in 2020
with their stellar debut, slacker indie pioneers Sorry go one better
with an even stronger sophomore record. There might not be anything quite as
instant as ‘Starstruck’ or ‘Right Around the Clock’ here, but there’s greater
depth and consistency throughout. Sorry are growing as song-writers. It’s
probably telling that, when my ‘Spotify wrapped’ stats appeared, Sorry came
out as my 2nd most played artist of 2022 (1st was the
artist that tops this List, and 3rd was Nirvana…). Sorry
placed second because alongside this excellent album I’ve also continued to
play their debut regularly, as well as their curio EP from last year. Anywhere
But Here is the best of those 3 releases: it ups the game by broadening its
influences. Lament to lost love ‘Key to the City’ is a trip-hop track in
disguise, especially in its last third; ‘Baltimore’ mixes the spikey indie of
the 2000s with post-rock; album-closer ‘Again’ is a synth driven prog-indie
delight. And the lyrics are uniformly excellent again too. Take the exploration of
the mind of a gambling addict that is ‘Quit While You’re Ahead’ (‘Quit while
you’re ahead / How can I when I’ve got winning combinations in my head?’). A
fantastic live show in Bristol on Halloween certainly helped cement my love of
this record, but it was already well established. Sorry have released two
albums and an EP since the start of 2020, and I’ve loved them all: meaning that they
surely are early contenders to be one of the bands of the decade
for me.