Oh! It's been a while. I have not penned an album review on this blog since Sports Team's first album - Deep Down Happy back in 2020. Gulp! In the intervening time I missed reviewing the second one, so I'm back third time lucky with a meditation on new longer player Boys These Days.
Once again, the same disclaimers apply. My day job is, well, let's just say somewhat different. Think of this as a passion project (I'm a fan) not professional critique. It was largely written on a train! I wanted to get this out during album launch week in the hope that maybe I get one or two readers, and the band an extra listener intrigued enough to try something new. I've only had a few days of listening so think first impressions rather than a more settled and subtle appreciation.
The album's opening is a marked departure from previous outings. Debut album Deep Down Happy opened with the sonic boom of Lander, The second Gulp! the howling feedback of rock anthem The Game. Third time out the gates, after an extended hiatus in a world with the attention span of a gnat, and we slide straight in with luxurious sax soaked love song: Subaru.
The opener plants the flag in a distinctly new groove. It's not just Subaru, things really have moved on musically. The sound goes large but not in the "amp to eleven" way. This is a larger orchestral sound brimming with layers and musical flourishes. The instrumentation and arrangement nodding more to Karl Wallinger than comtemporay post punk peers. It feels like fun was had with producer Matias Tellez.
Lyrically we are on more familiar territory, the barbed humour and sand paper dry commentary. The title track Boys These Days has echoes of album one's The Races, not musically, but by the inclusion of an odious character, this one lamenting the youth of today. Whilst Moving Together muses on modern love.
As side one progresses there's increased pace and intensity Singles Condensation and Sensible inject some familiar live energy, both still popping with crisp flourishes on keys and guitars. These tracks will scratch the itch for exisiting fans still adjusting to the band's new direction.
Side two opener Planned Obsolescence brings whistling back into fashion, and lyrisist Rob Knaggs gets his turn on lead vocals. Imagine if Johnny Cash came from the home counties railing against a world were you've been set up to fail and spitting a string of one liners where being the joke isn't funny.
For Bang Bang Bang the sound channels an Ennio Morricone spaghetti western score whilst the lyrics pillory US gun culture. We stay with a stateside theme and country and western rounds and reels for Head to Space. Here the contemporary escapist fantasy of the ultra wealthy to leave earth and it's problems behind are in the band's sights, delivered in with a repeating worksong intensity.
Penultimate track Bonnie maintains the intensity but slows the pace and transports us to a completely different genre. Sports Team content to mix it right up again. This one's a grower. Maybe when we're thirty, already a personal favourite, is a fitting album closer, a meditation on growing older both idolysing and sneering at an out of reach mundane surburban middle class dream.
Summing up, Boys these days is a joyful paradox. The album again arrives late but it's songs are right on time with contemporary topics. It's very different but at its core the same: the music has moved on to new turf but the observations carry the band's trademark humour and swipes at the absurd along with a longing for finding meaning in the modern world. It leans a little further state-side but remains quintessentially British in outlook. It's has a chaotic quality but is deliberate and finessed, overflowing with ideas some might find dischordant, others refreshing.
What more can be said? Sports Team are so back and I'm glad. I'm hoping the world is ready for them and we don't have as long to wait until the band's next musical adventure.
If you can, buy the album, buy the merch and go see them on tour..