Earlier this month, aptly named Soot Sprite, effervescent in their exploration of life’s darker moments, celebrated the release of their debut album, Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon. A reflection on the duress humanity faces in the rapidly changing modern world, each song and its unique outlook could represent a different day of the week amidst the chaos of it all. Acceptance, protest, fear, sadness, and rage all have their place in this album as Soot Sprite explores the entire spectrum, all with an undercurrent of helplessness as they persist toward the future, attempting to visualize some obfuscated thing worth hoping for.
The album’s lyrics are candid and deeply relatable. The sentiments of this album are direct and forthcoming without hiding behind much metaphor: depression coped with through escapism, overwhelm caused by rapid-cycling news media, and the ensuing apathetic numbness is dealt with in an overt way, almost unnervingly at times. An apparently political album, Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon, explores various concrete social issues without a unified cause: climate change, global mental health crisis, and class war all receive mentions, gesturing more broadly towards the toiling “state of things” as the source of its terrifying uncertainty. The content is uncontroversial despite being justified overall in the rage, grief, apathy, and hope it shows its causes.
The album’s most potent and most striking theme is that of vulnerability. Soot Sprite flawlessly demonstrates the dilemma of an empathetic being living in a world that functions unsustainably, offering visibility just short of safety. These songs may admit a sense of apathy and numbness. Still, it is subsequently denounced: Soot Sprite is interfacing with the painful thing and letting it open them up rather than shut them down. This is where the album shines the brightest, on tracks like “Wield Your Hope Like A Weapon,” “Spectator,” and my personal favorite, “Days after Days”:
“The thick skin you grow, is it really a blessing? / What’s a suit of armor when your ship is sinking / To be soft is a form of defense”.
Soot Sprite, like many of us, is feeling way too many things way too much of the time. Wield Your Hope Like a Weapon is a dramatic, energetic listen that makes one thing abundantly clear: it’s all going to be worth it.
Written by Hann Sandoz
