SPRINTS
“Better”
Sub Pop
The Irish band SPRINTS has released one of my all-time favorite post-punk ballads.
It’s called “Better,” and it’s their best songwriting yet. It’s one of the singles from their excellent new album, “All That Is Over,” which came out back in the fall via Sub Pop.
There’s something about very loud, aggressive bands finding ways to be a bit quieter and to add a whole bunch of emotion to their lyrics along the way. That’s the strength of “Better,” which is disguised as a love song – or a break-up song –but lead singer Karla Chubb says otherwise.
“It explores the idea of not liking someone better, but only liking them when they’re better. It’s tough, sad, but honest and frank,” wrote Chubb.
Over churning and brooding guitars and Chubb’s bonafide mega-melodies, the lyrics ring out: “Oh, I liked you better / Oh, I liked you good and clean / Before you turned bad weather / Raged a storm inside of me.” Throughout it all, there’s this tension of restraint, where you could hear the band turning this into a raging, louder version of itself, but instead choosing to focus more on sonic tone and emotional delivery.
Chubb says the musical inspiration woven into this song stems from shoegaze gods My Bloody Valentine and equally emotionally articulate punk rockers Amyl and the Sniffers.
And to think! This banger of a track started as a demo and almost ended up on the cutting room floor. Instead, it’s one of the best songs SPRINTS has ever written.
