Sorry - Twixtustwain

The crux of Sorry’s brilliance is their ability to mesh genres and dance around boundaries like they aren’t even there; last year’s debut ‘925’ glistened in the moments where jazz or trip hop adorned its indie rock frame. It’s easy to picture vocalists Asha Lorenz and Louis O’Bryen nonchalantly knocking out ‘Twixtustwain’ sat on a bedroom floor, twiddling with loops and samples. A tasty little amuse-bouche before the main course of LP2, it feels like Sorry at their most experimental. ‘Don’t Be Scared’ is an eerie, croaky duet with a riveting breakdown, ‘Separate’ has a skulky, late-night coolness and, with more electronic elements than before, it perhaps foreshadows a pivot away from conventional guitar sounds on Album Two. Equally, ‘Cigarette Packet’ is Sorry at their best. Almost chiptune in its lo-fidelity, it see-saws back and forth like a character in a seedy bar gunning for a scrap. Though her performances are soft and even fragile at times, there’s always been a toughness to Asha’s vocal, but on ‘Favourite’ she seems to let her guard down. “Am I your favourite song? Am I your favourite one?” she asks over a simple guitar melody, with a vulnerability we’ve not seen from the band before. Just another notch in the belt of this outfit who seldom put a foot wrong.