Sports Team - Boys These Days

A band built on chaos, Sports Team have always known how to throw a party with a point. Their third album, ‘Boys These Days’, finds them once again skewering the absurdities of modern British life atop a backdrop of good old-fashioned guitar music.

Never ones to take themselves too seriously, the band’s sardonic wit is as sharp as ever. “When I was your age we didn’t even have doors, we just had playing in the traffic with rocks,” sings Alex Rice on the title track, poking fun at weaponised nostalgia. It’s precisely the kind of disarmingly sincere sarcasm that’s built them an unwaveringly loyal fan base. Elsewhere, ‘I’m in Love (Subaru)’, a sparkling, sax-laced highlight, asks whether buying a red Subaru Impreza (“Immaculate leather and chrome!”) might fix everything.

Even in the album’s earnest moments, where the band uncover substance beneath their snarky self-awareness, they still manage to slide in a razor-sharp critique or two. While ‘Moving Together’ questions true love, the line “Train delays mean I’m running late” jolts the listener back into grim reality. Similarly, ‘Maybe When We’re 30’ paints a picture of growing old in middle Britain, complete with reading The Telegraph and complaining to the council about bins.

However, Sports Team have always understood that big thoughts land better when shouted in the middle of a riotous mosh pit, so ‘Boys These Days’ doesn’t skimp on the anthems. ‘Condensation’ is a roaring hot-and-heavy ode to sweat, the jaunty ‘Head to Space’ channels their inner slapstick, and the Western-inspired ‘Bang Bang Bang’ gallops in with flair.

‘Boys These Days’ isn’t trying to fix anything. It’s a snapshot of a country, a scene, and a band all trying to keep it together while having a laugh. And in these times, that might just be enough.