Frisch erschienen ist das zweite Album der irischen Punkband SPRINTS. Zu Beginn ihrer Karriere war die Gruppe aus Dublin noch mehr im Post-Punk verortet (wie im fabelhaften „How Does The Story Go?“, in den hiesigen Songs des Jahres 2021 auf Platz 4), doch mit dem letztjährigen Debütalbum entwickelte SPRINTS sich in eine griffigere Punkvariante, bei der auch Sängerin Karla Chubb ihre Rampensau-Qualitäten besser ausspielen kann. Wir haben ihr fünf deutschsprachige Songs vorgespielt:

Bipolar Feminin – Tüchtig

The guitar that comes in on the chorus sounds like a cheese grater, in the best possible way. I like the instrumental second chorus that’s different to the first, a bit unexpected in this tune. Getting a tiny Pavement vibe of this, it gets better as it goes and the pay off is there.

Christin Nichols – Citalopram

Immediately nice vibe off this, sort of 80s sound meets Feist? Chorus gets shoegazey, there’s a simplicity to this that’s nice to the ear, no need to get fancy for fancy’s sake. The chorus has wiggled into my head by its third run.

Akne Kid Joe – What AfD Thinks We Do

I wish I knew what they were saying in the intro because it sounds important. This tune has at least 3 times gone into a chord progression I didn’t expect. If you do it confidently enough it works. The gang vocal on the pre-chorus and chorus sounds great. There’s so much Club Mate in this video our (German) sound engineer must of had a hand in it. There’s a youthful urgency to this band that makes me wonder how they are in a small ditzy venue, I can imagine them blowing the roof off.

Die Nerven – Barfuß durch die Scherben

Loving the intro to this a lot. That bass sounds very atmospheric, tight sounding with the drums. Good intro into a verse with a good beat. This is a moody tune that sounds like it go of the rails at any time but manages to stay on the tracks, whilst still building to a nice crescendo! I love it.

Gewalt – Deutsch

This is cool shit. Getting an LCD soundsystem vibe if you took them and threw them into a German dive bar and played them through a rusty speaker. That unnerving guitar in the chorus sounds sick. The energy is infectious throughout the song. The whole tune has a small horror vibe to it which is elevated when the synth comes in towards the end. Ends too soon, favourite of the bunch.

Das neue Album von SPRINTS, „All That Is Over“, ist Ende September auf City Slang erschienen.

Frühere Ausgaben von German Blind Date:
– Big Special
– Herman Dune
– Hot Chip
– die Wave Pictures
– Adam Ant
– Yeasayer
– Maximo Park
– The Stranglers
– LIARS
– We Were Promised Jetpacks
– The Walkabouts
– Los Campesinos!
– Bleached