On Friday, the concussive Dublin indie rockers Sprints will release their debut LP Letter To Self, and it’s our first Album Of The Week of 2024. Sprints were also a Band To Watch on this site a few months ago, and we’ve posted album tracks like “Up And Comer” and “Shadow Of A Doubt.” Now, with the record about to come out, Sprints have shared one last early track. It’s a banger.

The new Sprints song “Heavy” is a scratchy, feverish rager about feeling a sudden, overwhelming inability to function. Over explosively tense riffage, bandleader Karla Chubb goes between breathless, nervy sing-speak and fiery roar: “Do you ever feel like the room is heavy? Like the air is hot and the air is sweaty?” In a press release, Chubb has this to say:

The brutally cacophonous sound communicates how it feels to be paralyzed and inspired by anxiety, pairing intrusive thoughts, panic and intensity with that anxiety inducing build. Heavily inspired my early Bauhaus records and PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire?, it draws a heavy influence from 80s gothic — the purposeful space reflecting the isolating nature of panic.

The “Heavy” video is nowhere near as anxious as the song; it’s just footage of the band members having fun. Check it out below.

Letter To Self is out 1/5 on City Slang.