London indie shape-shifters
Sorry
first began getting attention with their self-released home demos that jumped from slinky trip-hop to nervous post-punk to dreamy shoegaze and more with each new song. An experimental pop group led by childhood friends
Asha Lorenz
and
Louis O'Bryen
,
's willingness to try anything and everything with their songs was one of their most exciting attributes. In the hands of lesser songwriters, this anything-goes approach could have resulted in messy, disjointed ugliness, but
threaded all their wildly disparate directions together with a vivid personality. Much like their early demos and singles, the wandering ideas on
's debut album,
925
, work because of how strong the songwriting is in whatever shape it takes. Unlike the hazy, sometimes lo-fi sheen of their home demos,
boasts sharp, meticulous production. In addition to
Lorenz
O'Bryen
's core song creations, which often appeared in spare, rhythm-less arrangements on earlier work, solid playing from drummer
Lincoln Barrett
and bassist
Campbell Baum
are in full focus as well.
's stylistic ping-ponging isn't as audacious here as it sometimes was on earlier recordings, but they still move deftly from low-energy dream pop on "As the Sun Sets" to punky swagger backed with electro-clash bass on "Starstruck." Electronic drum programming blurs with live drumming on many songs, such as the clicky hi-hats and laser beam sounds of "Wolf" and the trappy underpinnings of the slow-moving, drunkenly woozy "Snakes." Almost every song on
is constructed like a single. "Right Round the Clock" builds a world of its own, with a big beat and a sinister saxophone riff supporting shadowy melodies. The song is so captivating that when the band re-interpolates a segment of
Tears for Fears
' '80s hit "Mad World," it almost slips by unnoticed. Over the course of 13 tracks,
drifts into a wide range of sounds and experiments with subtlety. Their chameleonic approach is never garish, with strong songs being the main takeaway and all the experiments with production and style just the weird icing on the cake. ~ Fred Thomas