Origins is our recurring feature series that provides artists with a space to explore the everything that went into their latest release. Today, UK rock group Sorry take us through “Key to the City.”
Sorry have unleashed “Key to the City,” the latest single from their upcoming sophomore effort Anywhere But Here. The gloomy, acid-pop ballad comes complete with a trippy, near-dystopian music video co-directed by band member Asha Lorenz.
With a name like Sorry, you’re not exactly expecting joyful music. Even so, the particular brand of doomed, artsy indie-rock of “Key to the City” is surprising. With ominous rhythm guitars and manic synth lines, the track finds Sorry tapping into the same type of depressive tone bands like Radiohead usually inhabit.
“I guess this song is in a way quite hopeless,” band member Louis O’Bryen tells Consequence. “When you can’t get someone off your mind, or the things they’re doing without you, or you hold on to things they’ve said to you that have changed meaning now things are different. It’s all a pointless reflection, but one you need to move.”
The track follows the previous singles “Let the Lights On” and “There’s So Many People That Want to Be Loved,” each moody in their own right, but without the utter hopelessness described by O’Bryen. Understated and dynamic, “Key to the City” is Sorry’s most beautifully crushing song yet.
The accompanying video is fittingly dreary. Co-directed by Lorenz, it voyeuristically follows the lives of several individuals through the lens of an open window. The visuals are absurd, almost disturbing, and often carry with them a dark sense of humor.
Check out the video for Sorry’s “Key To The City” below, followed by the Origins of the track as explained by Louis O’Bryen.
Anywhere But Here is out October 7th via Domino. Pre-orders are ongoing. The band will also be touring off the back of Anywhere But Here; check out tickets via Ticketmaster.
