Sorry – ‘Cosplay’ album review: the ultimate disappearing act
Cosplay, the third studio album from alt-rock London outfit Sorry, is a project for both sides of heartbreak; for the obsessive infatuation of the before, and the sickening atrophy of the after. In its unyielding cynicism and crunchy sonic intensity, genius lies.
The Skinny: To put it plainly, the songs on this long-awaited record are indeed so fucking good. Cosplay is an album where things never sit still. We shift, you shift, the songs shift rabidly. “You and I are the same,” Ash Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen sing together on ‘Life In This Body’, a duo with undeniable force. This can be true only in the sense that we are all constantly changing, they tell us. Volatility, both sonically and emotionally, becomes a strength.
Therein lies the heart of the project, which attacks our endless disguises, investigating modern subterfuge and the liberation of illusory subjectivity as a way to celebrate the otherwise dreary impermanence of youth, internet culture, ecstasy, magic, heatbreak. Sorry tap into the mainframe and find it more beautiful than the surface it hides behind.
Let’s put the intellectualism aside for a second, as the album calls you to do so when it happens upon a groove. Sonically, Sorry have reached new heights on the 11-track album. Lorenz’s thin, magnetic cadence elevates the mercurial grunge circling out from Marco Pini’s excellent additions. The pacing is purposeful, the opening run slipping from the transcendental ‘Echoes’ to the dizzying, catchy ‘Jetplane’, into the fiery ‘Love Posture’. Before we know it, we’ve unwittingly slipped into the world of love and other lies. We’ve no choice but to swim upstream.
The Verdict: Forget the death of original thought. Sorry have more ideas than ever before on Cosplay, in which they try on every conceit they can get their hands on to find each fitting better than the last. When everything comes to a head with ‘Jive’, we’re right there with them. Which is, at last, nowhere at all.
Defining Song: ‘JIVE’
Release date: November 7th, 2025 | Producer: Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen | Label: Domino
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