the first great album of 2024

Letter to Self by SPRINTS

Hello and Happy New Year,

I have left the general store unoccupied since April of last year, but I’m trying to be a bit freer in what and when I share.

To that end, I usually take January to listen to relax on my yearlong jaunt to find new music, and it’s typically February or even March before I fall in love with my first new album.

Not the case in 2024, which I am taking as a good sign for the year!

SPRINTS, a Dublin-based punk band, has just put out their debut album, Letter to Self. I’d describe them as a heavier answer to Wet Leg (funnily enough, I found after making that comparison that they even covered “Chaise Longue”), and I wasn’t even finished playing the album for Meg once when she had me buy tickets to their upcoming tour.

Singer Karla Chubb matches the frenetic energy of the instrumentation with striking lyrics that have stayed with me since I first heard them just a few days ago.

“And I don’t know to make it better,” Chubb wonders, “Is that possible?”

While she mines the difficulties of that and other questions, there is an earnestness to her voice that makes the songs ring with hope.

“I don’t have to take the path that was carved in front of me,” she remarks on the album’s closer. It’s an optimistic album grounded in reality, and I can already tell it’s going to see me through the year.

You can listen here if you’re on Spotify, or support them directly through their Bandcamp.