I'm So Glad That We Both Made It Out
By all measurable metrics, Talk It Out, the second full-length from Sydney indie-punx and self-described "queer pop dreamboats", Sports Bra, builds on their impressive 2017 self-titled foundation: more catchy, more emo, more lemonade spilt as we all sing-a-long at specific breakout bits, sandwiched in tight in the packed, sweaty room of Black Wire 96 Tears. And above all else: even more of themselves.
Sports Bra have shitloads to say and (sticking true to the LP's title) aren't gonna merely scribble it down in secret, password-protected LiveJournals. This is all public, no bullshit stuff, ready to unload, and fast: purpose over mere creative pastime.
All of which should come as no surprise to those studying the surrounding PR (ie. a paragraph on a Facebook event page), with the band themselves describing the LP as a "deep and reflective dive into the everyday human relationships that shape our lives." Impressive though is the tact, with the quartet clearly snubbing the neat, songwriting staples — murky flexi-metaphors and any form of economic beauty — in favour of heart-sleeved, unminced measures, with complete, clarified sentences rammed into spaces better suited for slogan-sized words (again, purpose is the lead here). Against all sensibility there, they win: landing that rare-as-fuck balance between accessibility (you know, "poppy") and investable ("personal") as they rarely stray from that introspective route (with occasional wider vantage points, see: "Sobriety Kills"), yet the clear focus here is self-improvement, rather than critical self-analysis. Hope over mope, as the old saying goes.
Hard to pick a standout to highlight here, but with the band themselves describing Talk It Out as "an album about survival", a nudge is given towards the riff-led fist-pumper "Survival" as the perfect two-fifty second snapshot. But seriously, go and grab the whole thing here (cassette also available via Terrible Tapes).
Sports Bra take Talk It Out on the road this month, launching it tonight in Sydney at 96 Tears, ahead of a first-on appearance at Laneway Festival on Sunday (set your alarms for that 11:30am slot) and headline shows in Canberra, Melbourne and Newcastle. Full details here.