As well as announcing their hugely-anticipated second album Anywhere But Here – out October 7th on Domino and releasing a new single “Let The Lights On” that just got onto the B-list of 6 music, Sorry are embarking on a UK tourthis autumn. Sorry’s universally-acclaimed debut album 925 earned a string of near-perfect review scores, A-List national radio playlistings and global media profiles upon its release in March 2020. Anywhere But Here is the band’s first full body of work since the Twixtustwain EP arrived last year, alongside the official digital release of their brace of 2017 mixtapesHome Demo/ns Vol I. and Home Demo/ns Vol. II. The new album was produced by the band’s Louis O’Bryen and Asha Lorenz, and Ali Chant along with Portishead’s Adrian Utley in Bristol. Explaining more about Anywhere But Here, Asha says: “Anywhere But Here! We approached the album differently from the first one, it was more of a live band process and the outcome has made it feel rawer and more sincere… we think. We wanted every song to have its own gravity but also have little snippets, or lyrical patterns that repeat, grow – metamorphosis.”
If their first full-length album 925 (produced by Lana Del Rey and Gorillaz collaborator James Dring) was more electronic, Anywhere But Here pays homage to classic songwriters of the 1970s, such as Carly Simon and Randy Newman. Asha’s nonchalant salty-sweet vocals contrast with detuned/discordant guitar sounds echoing early ‘90s bands, Slint and Tortoise, and the irregular beats of Kanye or Capital Steez.
London features as a prominent character on the album. Earwigged conversations, text messages, snatched speech recorded underground; the city’s discarded words fed into the lyrics which map the experience of urban life on a young and frustrated generation. But this is a different type of city to 925’s, told through the voices of two people in their early 20s whose lives have become insular. “If our first version of London in 925 was innocent and fresh-faced, then this is rougher around the edges. It’s a much more haggard place,” Louis says. For Asha, this period of intensity was challenging: “I just did what everyone else did, I went a bit mad.” As her romantic relationship disintegrated, slow days were spent reflecting on the recent past. “I felt like everything was just getting so far away from who I was,” she says. “I kept thinking ‘who am I now?” Her mother, a Death Doula, returned home each night from providing spiritual guidance to patients in the end stages of life, with profound stories that were impossible not to absorb. From these domestic periods of disquiet and unease, Asha wrote the closing track “Again”, about rebirth and death, with an arrangement responding to the idea of frequency that transcends the female body: ‘The world shone like a chandelier / and I was lost for good.’ A sense of newness sits at the heart of Sorry’s songs – of what it means to be young and upended in the 2020s, with all the challenges and ingenuity that life in the metropolis brings. Sorry recently completed a run of support dates with Sleaford Mods in the US (as well as their own LA headline show in April), and a headline UK tour last month – which included a hometown show at London’s Jazz Cafe. The band will tour the UK in October and November; playing their biggest headline show to date in London on 2 November at Electric Brixton. See Sorry live in 2022: 25 Oct | Chalk, Brighton 26 Oct | Metronome, Nottingham 27 Oct | Brudenell Social Club, Leeds 28 Oct | Stereo, Glasgow 29 Oct | Academy 2, Dublin 31 Oct | Fleece, Bristol 1 Nov | White Hotel, Manchester 2 Nov | Electric Brixton, London Sorry – Anywhere But Here – out 07/10/22 via Domino
1. Let The Lights On 2. Tell Me 3. Key To The City 4. Willow Tree 5. There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved 6. I Miss The Fool 7. Step 8. Closer 9. Baltimore 10. Hem of the Fray 11. Quit While You’re Ahead 12. Screaming In The Rain 13. Again “Let The Lights On” will be available on limited 7” HERE from September 16th and previous single ‘There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved’ – which also features on Anywhere But Here – will also be pressed as a limited 7” with ‘15’4’ featured as the B-side. Preorder ‘TSMPTWTBL’ HERE for release on 5 August. Anywhere But Here will be available on 12″ vinyl (with a limited version featuring gatefold sleeve, neon green and transparent green vinyl options, 4-page lyric booklet, A2 fold-out illustrations poster), CD, cassette & digitally – pre-order HERE.
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