The world moves so fast. When the internet rolled around in the early aughts and really changed the way music was being ingested, it would only be a short matter of time before you would hear how this would affect the way music was being produced. The cross genre blending of artists, especially with the advent of cheap home recording gear, has also done a ton of help reinvent the way in which the average listener is comfortable hearing things. There will always be that “classical” style of songwriting but more and more mashup and mixtape culture has seeped into many artist’s creative processes. There has always been talk about how there is only so much you can do within a traditional song arrangement but with rules being broken and people caring less about the means they must take to justify a final product, bands can still remain relevant and exciting. North Londoners Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen exemplify this perfectly. Their band Sorry has become one of the most talked about acts to come out of the UK’s underground scene and now with their album 925, dropping March 27th via Domino Records, they are about to be spoken about with that same reverence just everywhere else. On their album the pair take on all genres, whipping these disparate parts and moments together and have crafted something unique and something uniquely their own.

925 kicks off with “Right Around The Clock” with an 80s indebted electronic feel. The wonderful, and wonderfully British, boy/girl vocal parts immediately grab you with their sweet swagger. The song is interesting enough on the merit that every vocal stanza seems to be employing a different melody and in some cases ones that are fully borrowed from other songs, such as Tears For Fears “Mad World”. It’s fun to play spot the influence but also it sets the tone for what is to come, an intriguing blend of borrowed sophistication mixed with some brazen rule breaking. “In Unison” is buoyantly sinister but the darkness is balanced by a sunny vocal melody. “Starstruck” gyrates out of your speakers sounding a bit like The Menace era Elastica with it’s angular synths and chopped up vocal bits. The band veers course often from song to song. “Perfect” lives in a more classic indie rock world with its ‘real’ drum sounds and heavier guitars. Even on a track like this where things are more traditional, Sorry still manages to keep things sharp and exciting. Much of this is indebted to the way Lorenz and O’Bryen’s vocal parts play off each other. The production throughout the record is crisp even when the band dirties things up some. Every part lingers wonderfully mixed in it’s own space even if that space is a bit grimier than some of the others around it.

With 925, Sorry are living at a crossroads where genres are mixed up, rearranged and spat out and it’s all really pleasant. There isn’t a ton going on here that is overwhelming or super challenging and that isn’t really the point. Sorry are using their talent to take their influences, use what they want to accordingly and have crafted an album that is more forward thinking than just a pastiche of sounds that have come before. It’s refreshing, interesting and above all else, really fun.

review by Adam Fink

925 by Sorry comes out March 27th via Domino Records