Sprints’ debut album ‘Letter to Self’ embodies their substantial evolution over the past 3 years. Transforming pain into truth, passion into purpose and perseverance into strength, the Dublin four-piece have steadily grown in stature, releasing two acclaimed EPs and building a fearsome live reputation. ‘Letter to Self’ is the sound of Sprints consolidating and levelling up. Exhibiting their most vulnerable moments and imbuing their visceral garage-punk with a palpable sense of catharsis that we can all benefit from.
The band see opener “Ticking” and the following track “Heavy” as sister songs, with the former as “the start of the spiral and the panic in your chest, and ‘Heavy’ is when that panic has fully hit, when you’re in bed at six a.m. and you haven’t slept.” “Heavy,” meanwhile, draws inspiration from gothic rockers Bauhaus. The song invokes the headrush of fear after a night out, when you arrive home just as everyone else is going to work and question what you’re even doing with your life. The emotional crux of the album arrives in the form of “Shadow of a Doubt,” all about suicidal ideation and deep, distressing loneliness. After the gravity of a track like that, “Can’t Get Enough of It” is a breath of fresh air to start off the B-side. Sam McCann briefly moved in with Karla Chubb during COVID, and this was one of the first songs they wrote together, drunk in her spare room.
The album’s penultimate track, “Up and Comer,” asks that question that haunts many bands: When do you stop being the hot new group on the scene and start just being known for your sheer talent? It’s a conundrum for Sprints that they hope is solved by the release of their debut, which hopefully situates them as a mainstay of Ireland’s bursting music scene. Chubb’s delivery drips with sarcasm as she sing-screams, “They say she’s good for an up and comer.” Finally, we arrive at the title track, when Chubb answers her initial cry of “Am I alive?” on “Ticking” with a definite, “But I am alive.” “Letter to Self” the album is laden with doom, but “Letter to Self” the song is when the listener comes full circle, ultimately finding an inner peace—even if the soundtrack to that peace is anything but serene.
Tapping into drone-y and noisy elements were key to creating the anxious, sweat-drenched atmosphere Sprints wanted on “Letter to Self”
The Fat Angel Sings 