More about: sorry

'There is nothing new to invent' I sometimes think to myself - 'everything that is ever to be made has already been made!' I’m wrong of course. There is infinite possibility. Most people can only draw heavily on what has already been or else sit frozen by the enormity of choice. For the majority, that incomprehensibly large creative horizon remains unexplored. With 925, Sorry prove themselves to be that rare thing: true innovators. 

This is the impatiently-awaited debut full-length from the North London band Sorry, underpinned by childhood mates Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Brien and formerly known as Fish. It’s a disorienting, apocalyptic record, woven with old favourites (‘Starstruck’), reimaginings of early mixtape ideas (‘Snakes’) and a ‘refix’ of live favourite ‘Lies’.

Jumping in with ‘Right Round The Clock’, the tone of the record is set: this is to be a deranged and dicy series of sounds that prove just how much new stuff you can conceive of and then make if you are preternaturally gifted and hard working. ‘Snakes’ in particular, which is a refix of a snippet taken from their impressive 2017 mixtape ‘Home Demo/ns Vol I’, is a thoroughly refreshing slice of cross-genre grunge that slides across disparate terrains. 

‘Rock ’n’ Roll Star’ welcomes burring saxophone and an ‘ay up drumming chorus, ‘More’ enjoys sparse guitar parts and numbing vocals, ‘Ode To Boy’ (another mixtape rework) features the distant calls of a choir of schoolchildren - “this isn’t an ode to joy because there’s no joy” Lorenz sings as they harmonise.  

Chaos reigns, and yet every moment of wailing sax, every instance of Lorenz and O’Brien’s clashing vocals is purposeful. The overriding sensation of 925 is one of pleasurable transportation. We’re doped up and spinning out in the world that Sorry have conceived of entirely themselves; soaking in the goods they have brought back for us from the horizon of unplumbed creativity. 

Even on songs that draw from the past -  ‘Right Round The Clock’ nods to ‘Mad World’, while ‘As The Sun Sets’ follows like a demented version of ‘What A Wonderful World’ - Sorry give the impression these are totally their own. 

Sorry are the most interesting guitar band working today, and on 925, they prove it. From their trips to the outer reaches of creativity, they have returned to us a portfolio of entirely new ideas. Doubtless, they have so much more to show us. 

925 is released on 27 March 2020 via Domino. 

More about: sorry