Sorry’s sophomore album Anywhere But Here proves to be an interesting listen, with a few decent singles weaved in, that continues from where their experimental debut 925 left off. The problem is, however, that Anywhere But Here doesn’t retain the excitement or the unpredictability that made 925 so great. On its own the album is fine, but as a fan, I can’t say I was impressed.
Genre wise, the diversity of 925 and their Twixtustwain Ep has been carried over which I do greatly appreciate. Their blend of art pop, indie rock, and grunge continues to create an interesting atmosphere overall, and credit should be given to the experimental attitude they have maintained, but this is about as far as the interest goes. It’s clear they have gone for a more palatable sound on their second album, which I can only say is a shame as they’ve sacrificed the distinctive difference of 925. The experimentation, whilst still there, doesn’t fully succeed in doing anything new, and instead finds itself becoming repetitive and quite frankly boring as the album goes on. Their sound just doesn’t hit on this album the same way it did before.
Sorry seem to have put more focus on the lyrical content of the songs on Anywhere But Here, which I can understand since the lyrical content of 925 was perhaps the main drawback, but I really don’t think it’s worked on Anywhere But Here either. The verses are quite weak, nothing they said specifically stood out to me as anything interesting or important. They are clearly fans of repeating the same phrases as substitutes for verses, which I’m not necessarily against as I think it works perfectly on ‘There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved’ which I would point as the main highlight of the album. It’s the only song where I’d say they managed to marry the stronger lyrical focus alongside the more palatable sound. It’s a great single, but it does very little to hold up the rest of the album. Anywhere But Here is sadly quite predictable, once you start to notice the musical and lyrical patterns, you start to guess what comes next. As soon as you’ve listened to ‘Closer’, you’ve also listened to ‘Screaming In The Rain’. When you listen to them back-to-back you really fail to notice any major distinctions, which I feel is the ultimate response to this album, it becomes very same-y very quickly.
Anywhere But Here is a project that I would say leaves very little to return to. Within it there are certainly some great pieces, it does actually start off quite good with the lead single ‘Let The Lights On’, another album highlight, where I really enjoyed the placement of the backing vocals which kind of sounded like screaming kids (that brought across a great melancholic nostalgia). It was the perfect song to start off what seemed to be a new sound. Sadly, though, this notion of newness falls off quite quickly, and you really do start to care less about what comes next. Many of the non-singles feel like an afterthought just strung together to fill a gap. Once I made it to ‘Again’, the closing track, I failed to even realise the album was reaching an end and I was only left with the question of, is that it?
I’m still excited for what Sorry do next, but a lot less so than I was before the release of Anywhere But Here.
Rating: 4/10
