Track by Track is a recurring feature series in which artists share the story behind every song on their latest release. Today, Sorry break down their new album, Anywhere But Here.
UK rock outfit Sorry have released their sophomore album, Anywhere But Here, today (October 7th). Their second LP is a nuanced and layered effort both in songwriting and production that at times feels like an anomaly. Even in the dreary, bleak moments of the record, a sense of ecstasy manages to permeate through, resulting in an extraordinary project that evokes an array of emotions.
Melancholic and introspective in nature thanks in part to subjects of depression, loneliness, and breakups, Anywhere But Here’s 13-track run is atmospheric, a coming-of-age listen that can play as the soundtrack for the lives of many. But even with the album’s somber tone, Asha Lorenz, Louis O’Bryen, Campbell Baum, Marco Pini, and Lincoln Barrett don’t necessarily need to match the mood sonically at all times.
Sorry tell Consequence that the aim of the lowkey, yet lively “There’s So Many People That Want To Be Loved” was to be “a sad-funny love song,” adding, “When we’re out of love we can feel detached and think ‘oh we’ll never be in love again… cry, cry’ but also try and laugh a bit… It’s easy to laugh or think you’ll never be THAT person, but then the next moment you can feel like the loneliest person in the world.”
Not all of Anywhere But Here fits the mold of sorrow. Album opener “Let the Lights On” may have been the last track Sorry wrote for this record, but it serves as an upbeat, euphoric introduction to the group’s latest body of work. “It started off as a dancy song with driving bass and drums and became more poppy when we played it with the band and recorded it,” Sorry remember around writing the track. “It’s a fun love song for the club.”
Throughout the album’s highs and lows on the emotional spectrum, Anywhere But Here is at its best when Lorenz and O’Bryen work off one another with their verses. This is best exemplified on the penultimate track, “Screaming in the Rain,” a sonic embodiment of an emotional numbness coupled with a driving instrumental embracing the anomalous sound of the record.
“The song captures the feeling of being lost in a city or a relationship and trying to figure out how to help that hopeless feeling. Also when we are depressed or lonely, how we can feel quite alien and disturbed. I think it’s quite a middle point of a depression when you’re really caught in the belly of the storm and whirlwind; when you’re still but everything is moving and louder around you.”
The conflicting feelings of somberness, anger, nothingness, and at times, joy, are what make Anywhere But Here a record that stays with you. Whether it be the relatability of their lyrics or the addictive instrumentals, Sorry have a variety of methods to keep listeners enticed through this poignant vessel.
Listen to Sorry’s Anywhere But Here below, followed by the band’s Track by Track breakdown primarily written from the perspective of Lorenz and O’Bryen. The group is also going on tour; get your tickets via Ticketmaster.
