Sprints – All That Is Over review

When did it happen? Can anyone pin it down? There must surely have been the Irish equivalent of a Big Bang, a Free Trade Hall moment, where all the pent up energy and anger combined to blow off the bottle stopper, a definitive BOOM that told this generation of musicians they need to go out and be fucking great.

Something must’ve triggered it. In it’s downstream we have not just the establishment in Fontaines DC but also CMAT, Gurriers, NewDad, For Those I Love and Kneecap. And of course we also have Sprints.

All That Is Over follows 2024’s well received Letter To Self, but singer Karla Chubb has since been wrapped in a songwriting paradox during it’s creation, one where she was active every day in the face of a world slipping into madness, but conversely where certain aspects of the band’s success meant she “Could not give less of a fuck”.

The quartet have sonically moved forward, blending shoegaze, wicked country rock and on the opener Abandon, gothic atmospheres into their post punk scree. Chubb by extension also now has the space to eviscerate those who view art as merely artifice on Descartes and via Need’s hardcore ferocity, point a middle finger at objectification. Whatever the big bang moment was, it seems we missed it. On the evidence of All That Is Over however the effects will be felt for many years yet to come.

You can read a full review here.