- Domino
- 2025
Desperation and delusion are at the heart of Sorry’s COSPLAY. It’s a fitting pendulum swing of emotion that feels like a morning skin routine in 2025. Our pores have adapted to AI slop, a growingly apathetic bureaucracy, and infinite distraction. It’s hard to tell what’s real, easy to feel increasingly cynical, hard to know what deserves our attention, and easy to feel overwhelmed. Dizzying singles “Echoes” and “JIVE” mirror the disorienting overstimulation that defines just about everything, frantically clinging to anything that feels good. On the latter, Asha Lorenz pleads, “I wanna jive tonight/ I wanna swing my hips,” before succumbing to a darker confession: “I don’t want to live like that/ I don’t want to live like this.”
"We are lost in time, we don’t have details to grab onto, nothing lasts forever. We just wear things from the past as they are the only thing to hold onto. We are all in an act of cosplaying something that doesn’t exist," the band shared in the album’s press materials. Often described as cryptic, 2020’s 925 and 2022’s Anywhere But Here solidified the allusive, sample-heavy North London five-piece as artists eager to stay slippery. Incredibly, their third album COSPLAY apprehends the moment.
Sorry have always been playful, while maintaining obscurity. This might seem contradictory, but COSPLAY is the most Sorry album that they’ve put out — "they" being Asha Lorenz, Louis O’Bryen, Lincoln Barrett, Campbell Baum, and Marco Pini. It’s absurd. It’s bold. It’s deliriously catchy. It's simultaneously bizarre and poignantly vulnerable. I’m nearly 90% sure that Next's "Too Close" is reconstructed into a Strokes-ian western romp, with a Joy Division nod in the chorus, for album standout "Love Posture." (You can catch a little bit of the sample at the very end of the song.) "Jetplane" repurposes Guided By Voices' “Hot Freaks” and a Watch The Throne lyric. And although it might seem easy enough to lose any semblance of time falling down COSPLAY’s collaged rabbit holes, these references never overwhelm the songs.
Sorry have always dabbled in mimicry. Through sampling and lyrical interpolation, their music reinvents or pays tribute. On their debut album 925, they cited Elvis, Tears For Fears, and Louis Armstrong. Even the album title, explained as a reference to silver’s purity percentage, could very well be a layered nod to Dolly Parton or the initial grind of starting a rock band. These moments seemed like a form of play or in-jokes that the listener might never fully understand. Their elusive mysticism was one of the band’s main draws, and it still is. But on COSPLAY, the stakes feel higher or maybe even warped. Their penchant for reference isn’t just a signature style anymore, but a source of friction.
Whether in lyrics, samples, or arresting pop structures, every Sorry album has the element of "Fuck, I was not expecting that." COSPLAY continues the band’s stride of approachable and esoteric. The album's formation was actually hinted at with 2022’s Anywhere But Here opener “Let The Lights On.” That single, which announced their sophomore album, was actually one of the last songs to be written. It pre-dates COSPLAY, but it feels like its cipher. If Anywhere But Here sounded like waiting in torrential downpour for a bus that keeps saying it’s five minutes away, COSPLAY is forgoing the bus entirely and sprinting home in the rain.
Although COSPLAY grapples with philosophical themes, it is less of a statement about art being made today and more about expanding Sorry’s creative universe. Sorry plow through uncertainty with irreverent hooks ("Today Might Be The Hit") and labyrinthine excavations of sound ("Waxwing," "Into The Dark"), ending up with an album that sums up how the last five years have felt — looking for sincerity in a hall of mirrors. Even if it doesn’t exist, it’s supposed to be fun to watch the twisted figures dance before us. Right?
COSPLAY is out 11/7 on Domino.
Other albums of note out this week:
- Rosalía's LUX
- The physical release of Hayley Williams' Ego Death At A Bachelorette Party
- Armand Hammer & The Alchemist's Mercy
- Danny Brown's Stardust
- Westerman's A Jackal's Wedding
- Twen's Fate Euphoric
- The Mountain Goats' Through This Fire Across From Peter Balkan
- DRAIN's ..IS YOUR FRIEND
- SML's How You Been
- Mavis Staples' Sad And Beautiful World
- Willie Nelson's Workin’ Man: Willie Sings Merle
- Stella Donnelly's Love And Fortune
- Hatchie's Liquorice
- Bun B's Way Mo Trill
- Kali Malone & Drew McDowall's Magnetism
- The Dears' Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful! Life Is Beautiful!
- h. pruz's Red Sky At morning
- Benee's Ur An Angel I’m Just Particles
- Whitney's Small Talk
- Sessa's Pequena Vertigem de Amor
- Pupil Slicer's Fleshwork
- Yndling's Time Time Time (I'm In The Palm of Your Hand)
- Tiny Vipers' Tormentor
- Liam Kazar's Pilot Light
- Flypaper's Forget The Rush
- The Saxophones' No Time For Poetry
- Mini Trees' Slow It Down
- Allie X's Happiness Is Going To Get You
- Charlotte de Witte's Charlotte de Witte
- Jonathan Jeremiah's We Come Alive
- Unwell's Allegoria
- Sarathy Korwar's There Is Beauty, There Already
- William Basinski's The Disintegration Loops – Arcadia Archive Edition Box Set
- Blue Loop's Cycles
- Circles Around The Sun's Dead: Volume 2
- Portland's Champain
- Sunflowers' You Have Fallen… Congratulations!
- Heaven For Real's Who Died & Made You The Dream
- Paul Schalda's Lately
- CAPYAC's Sobbing Ecstasy
- Revis' Killing Time
- Paul Kelly's Seventy
- Clark's Steep Stims
- Caskets' The Only Heaven You'll Know
- Brian House's Everyday Infrasound In An Uncertain World
- Devin Shaffer's Patience
- Ryan Reidy's Fringe Body Parts
- Austin Meade's Almost Famous
- Shungu's Faith In The Unknown
- Tristen's Unpopular Music
- Sabine McCalla's Don't Call Me Baby
- Finger Eleven's LAST NIGHT ON EARTH
- Jesse Harris' If You Believed In Me
- Teen Jesus & The Jean Teasers' GLORY
- Frida Kill's CITY GURL
- The Mynabirds' It’s Okay To Go Back If You Keep Moving Forward
- Agnes Haus' Inexorable Ascent
- Karen Schoemer's August
- Luke Bell's The King Is Back
- Lorraine Leckie And Her Demons' Goddamn Outer Space
- Del Water Gap's Chasing The Chimera
- Sam Gellaitry's Anywhere Here Is Perfect
- The Barons' Le Château
- toso toso's toso toso
- Debit's Desaceleradas
- The Mommyheads' No Quietus
- Armor For Sleep's There Is No Memory
- Trisha Yearwood's Christmastime
- Aaron Parks' By All Means
- Emergence Collective's Swimming in the early hours
- White Lies' Night Light
- Gareth Quinn Redmond's Múscailte
- Chris Thile’s Bach: Sonatas And Partitas, Vol. 2
- Tomorrow Kings' SALT
- Astronoid's Stargod
- Fulton Lights' Well The Night Has Come
- Ivo Perelman & Nate Wooley's Polarity 4
- Vincent Mason's There I Go
- Great Lakes' Don't Swim Too Close
- Portugal. The Man's SHISH
- Diego Caicedo's Eidos Daimonium
- Juana Molina’s DOGA
- G Herbo's Lil Herb
- Agnostic Front's Echoes In Eternity
- EarthBall's Outside Over There
- Danz CM's LÄRM!
- Fickle Friends' Fickle Friends
- Wata Igarashi's My Supernova
- Orchid Mantis' In Airports
- Herb Alpert's Christmas Time Is Here
- Chloe Flower's She Composed: The Holidays
- Cooper Alan's Winston-Salem
- Devon Church's All That’s Solid Melts Into Air
- Sweet Nobody's Driving Off To Nowhere
- Louis O'Hara's A Peaceful Kind Of Fun
- Franz Kirmann's Almadies
- Faouzia's FILM NOIR
- Billy Branch And The Sons Of Blues' The Blues Is My Biography
- Tomo Nakayama’s Ocean
- Miss Emily's The Medicine
- Sweet Harm's Certain Sun
- Das Kope's Brutamonte
- Terror Jr's The Terror Jr Album
- Brad Paisley’s Snow Globe Town
- Murmur's Red Hill
- YEONJUN's NO LABELS: PART 01
- Drake Milligan's Tumbleweed
- Henri Herbert's Get It While It’s Hot
- Doug Bielmeier's Electric Rodeo Revival
- Young Miko's Do Not Disturb
- Isadora's La Isla
- Body Of Research's Vehicle Wasting Away
- Ivan Moult's Stood Out In The Storm
- Toby Gad's Christmas Piano Diaries
- Sports Team's Boys These Days (Deluxe)
- Various artists' Hamilton: 10 Shots (Highlights From The Original Broadway Cast Recording)
- Emmylou Harris' Spyboy (Expanded)
- Slash's Live At The S.E.R.P.E.N.T. Festival
- WINGS' WINGS Anthology
- Amir ElSaffar's New Quartet Live At Pierre Boulez Saal
- Squint's Drag EP
- Future Clouds And Radar's Big Weather EP
- RaeLynn's Jingle Jangle Rock EP
- Gore.'s If You Do Not Fear Me… EP
- Helado Negro's The Last Sound On Earth EP
- Victoria Port's Barefoot In The Garden EP
- My Own Shadow's Approaching EP
- The Two Lips' girl, c’mon! EP
- Twine's Deer In The Headlights EP
- Hirons' Future Perfect EP
- Casiokids' Sjelden vare EP
- Recollection's Vivid Dreams EP
- She's In Parties' Are You Dreaming? EP
- Muireann Bradley's Rose Dogs EP
- SPFDJ's Heal Thyself EP
- Teen Daze's Splashes Of Colour EP
- Alana Hil's Diaries Of A Common Woman EP
- The Wesleys' Explosive Device EP
- Jaime Rosso's Away EP
- badsoma's self-titled EP
- Tara Lily’s Quiet Nights (Early Takes) EP
- Alemeda’s But What The Hell Do I Know EP
- St. Panther's Strange World EP
- FLOCO's I'll Be My Own Mirror EP
- Strange Passage's A Folded Sky EP
- The Orchestra (For Now)'s Plan 76 EP
- Mykel's Hometown Runaway EP
- Evissimax's Press X EP
- Jade LeMac's It's Always At Night EP
- Leilani Patao's daisy EP
