It’s already been a great start to the year for ska-core, and Sorry Sweetheart, from Denver, Colorado (where the water boils faster) has launched that start into the stratosphere. A little more than a week after Hans Gruber and the Die Hards released their 4th album, Sorry Sweetheart has released their first full-length album on Bad Time Records. The band has been releasing music for nearly a decade, but until now, they’ve only released singles and EPs. Their music is largely emo, punk, and pop-punk-influenced ska, with easycore elements, breakdowns, growls, and a healthy dose of pop culture references.
The album begins with “20 Million in 20’s”, and the introduction to the album is feedback that reminds me of the feedback to start Call Me Malcolm’s “Echoes and Ghosts” album, which is one of my favorite albums of all time. Literally one second into the album, and it caught my attention. The actual music begins with a short horn line followed by a quick drum beat. The brass is crisp and clear, setting the tone for the album, and it does a good job. Four final punches from the horns wrap up the intro as a quick-paced upstroke guitar riff picks up to lead us to the first verse with more muted horns playing behind the rhythm. The song is largely about feeling tentatively optimistic- cautiously aware of life not being completely miserable. It’s got solid breakdowns, good change-ups throughout the song, it is catchy and fun, and then the end of the song gets hard and aggressive, and that reminder about optimism- deep growled lyrics “fuck that shit, you can still get hit”. The pit has to erupt for this when played live.
The next three songs were all pre-release singles, and for good reason. While the first song on the album is a great introduction to the band and the album and could easily have served as a single, the next three songs are all incredibly good and deserved the extra promotion.
“Beyond Burger in Paradise” is the most pop-punk-influenced song; it’s catchy as fuck, easy to sing along with, and is about feeling like you’ve failed to live up to others’ expectations, but knowing you’re a good friend, loyal, and fun.
And as fun as that song was, the way it ends and “IKN4D” begins with an almost ominous horn line is crazy. Whatever fun pop-punk-ska just happened feels immediately gone. The drums on “IKN4D” carry the pacing extremely well, as the story feels like everything is wrong. This has more of a ska-core feel throughout, with thick guitar chugs and growls, broken up by upbeat short lines, and long, stretched emo vocals in the chorus in the early verses. Adam Davis of Omnigone comes in for a guest vocal verse, giving it the signature East Bay sound it deserves and completely changing the song. The change for this portion of the song is incredible: the horns, the style, the rhythm, everything shifts, and somehow it feels completely foreign and also complementary and perfect.
The 4th song, and the last of the pre-release singles, is my favorite song on the album- “Touch Grass”. The album’s title, “Warm Room, Good Friends,” is borrowed from the chorus of this track. While the first song on the album is about feeling cautiously optimistic, this song is the other side of the coin. Not only is there a feeling of depression, there is a cognitive realization that a part of the reason for the mental struggles is rooted in the economic situation we are all living in. “Two jobs, no rent, getting a little is heaven sent”. Not being able to afford to go out and do anything. It also deals with some of the depression of watching your friends go out and have fun on social media while you can’t afford to do anything about it, and “getting a little is hard, god damn”. Even a scrap of happiness needs to be fought for in this hellscape we’ve created for ourselves. Musically, lyrically, in every way, this is the song that I turn to every time I hear the album.
The album doesn’t do anything special here. A short, instrumental song, almost 90 seconds long, called “unplugged, refresh”. It heavily features the piano and literally just asks you to unplug and refresh. Step back. Enjoy the music. Appreciate the world around you. There are no lyrics, so any meaning I attribute to the song is based on its name and how it makes me feel, but disconnected. Take a breather. Reflect on something positive- because we’re not nearly done yet and life is tough. Getting a little is hard, god damn, so when you get 90 seconds of beautiful guitar and piano, appreciate it.
The last song I wanted to discuss specifically is the final song on the album- “Late Nights in the Bug Room”. The song and album end with a gang vocal chorus: “Not ever gonna stop watching stupid cartoons. I still think hardcore and pop punk are cool. Bad taste in everything but my friends.” It’s fun, and it’s catchy, and it really does a good job describing the album, but it’s not the reason I love this song. The real thesis of the song is earlier in the verses, “when someone falls, you best pick them up, all I need to know, I learned in this club, it’s so simple to learn better principles”. Of all the great lines in this album, that one lesson thrown into the last song- repeated in two different verses- is easily the most important. It’s a line we all need to remember, the rules of the pit. If someone falls, we’d best pick them up; it’s really that simple.
Written by Gimp Leg
