SPRINTS – ‘All That Is Over’ album review: They’re not letting up
I think out of all the albums that came out in 2024, SPRINTS’ debut, Letter to Self, was the one recommended to me the most.
When you listen to that album, you only need to experience the first song, ‘Ticking’, to begin to understand why people think so highly of it. There is a grit and an energy to it that you feel like a lot of bands are trying to execute today, but very few are doing justice. SPRINTS do it justice. And on their second album, All That Is Over, I can confirm that they’re not letting up.
It starts with ‘Abandon’, a hit of the snare and the pluck of a delayed bass. Vocals come in, subdued but emotive, draped in reverb, sweet-sounding but yet simultaneously pulled back. Subtle guitar strings shimmer in the background, high-pitched, delicate, clean. It feels like the kind of thing you dream about, but there is a lingering sense of dread which you can’t escape as this relatively calm introduction makes itself at home. That last snare drum rings out, the dread unrealised. Welcome to the album.
Karla Chubb, the band’s lead singer and guitarist, admitted that due to the success of their debut, they left 2024 as a completely different band compared to how they entered it. Success, tribulation, growth, and a newly realised confidence have allowed the band to enter a brand new phase, one that lets these songs build and ring out, one that keeps the listener on the edge of their seat for almost five minutes before a big hit of distortion finally releases us from this chokehold.
“Album one was so riddled with self-consciousness and a need to prove myself in a very male-dominated industry that really held me back in a lot of ways,” said Chubb. “And now, on this album, I could not give less of a fuck.”
It’s all well and good saying this comes across in the album once you read a quote about it, but trust me when I say it does. This isn’t a new version of SPRINTS, if you like the sound of the first album, you are going to hear drips of it in this one. However, what you are also going to hear is more of a willingness to experiment with sound, rhythm and vocals. The result sounds as if you put the first album in a can, shook it and then threw it off a cliff.
Anyone who heard the single ‘Descartes’ will have picked up on this new sense of freedom. Those guitars, those drums, they are as unrelenting as they are killer, and the repetitive chorus that is still packed with melody and whatever the other qualities are that make you want to sing along. This is a song begging for the privacy of headphones and the community of live crowds.
I feel like there are a lot of bands that go for the (sometimes) spoken lyrics, angry music kind of sound in the modern age, to the point that this style is at risk of becoming mundane when you listen to some groups. However, SPRINTS are a good reminder as to why so many people like this style, as they reveal the potential that comes from an unforgiving attitude and controlled chaos. Despite them brandishing a sound which is used a lot today, they manage to deliver it in a unique way that is pretty difficult not to enjoy.
They allow themselves to get angry on this album, yet they also save room for fun. It’s a rollercoaster with wheels coming off, but my word, what a way to go. After the success of their debut album, you’ll be happy to know that SPRINTS aren’t letting up, and it sounds like they have no intention of doing so anytime soon, either.
Defining track: ‘Need’ – This whole album’s great, I’ll be honest. ‘Need’ probably best conveys the range of emotion on here, as it sees the band at their most chaotic but also their most fun. You can really get lost in a song like this.
For fans of: Broken windows, storm clouds that never rain, and the Fast and Furious films.
A concluding comment from the guitar strings that I assume perished in the making of this album: “Totally worth it.”
Release Date: September 26th, 2025 | Label: City Slang / Sub Pop
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