Sorry Girls - Dreamwalker: Review

 

Review by Lavender:

Sorry Girls are a Canadian indie pop duo whose name I've heard a few times in the past few years. While the band sounded pretty routine to me each time I had heard them so far, the trio of excellent singles leading into Dreamwalker had me expecting something very special. While the album is certainly good and the best Sorry Girls offering yet, it ultimately settles into an above-average collection of dreamy, catchy, DIY pop. 

Let's start with that trio of singles, because they're absolutely dazzling. “Ricochet” led the way, and it's the song that instantly sold me on Sorry Girls. The way the breezy verses give way to an absolutely irresistible chorus is immaculate, and the lyric “feet don't walk away, they ricochet” is so simple and evocative it's brilliant. I also adore the third single “Hush Baby.” It has this tender chorus that kicks off with a rush of lush strings that swing so gently. I also love how the song flips someone telling you “hush baby” into something comforting with the gentle vocal performance. 

In between those two, they released “Quiet Hands.” It's a different kind of track with a punchier chorus and more sour vocals on the verse. While it may not be quite as irresistible as the other singles it does liven the tracklist up. In fact, some of the best deep cuts serve a similar purpose. Opener “Falling Down Stairs” is a great start to the album with flickering guitar lines and a dreamy layered hook. Later on the album, we get my favorite deep cut, “Stalker.” It features a surprisingly sparse chorus with these entrancing, distant drums. It pairs perfectly with a subversively dark lyrical theme that's one of the most interesting on the whole album. 

Those are the record's most striking moments, but hardly the only ones I enjoy. Both “Holding Onto Me” and “It's Only You” are short but sweetly drift through gentle, enveloping passages. “Great White” is an instrumental shift into an intimate piano ballad that closes the album off. There's also “Music For Rats,” which has some of the record's most interesting lyrics, even if I'm not crazy about the hook. 

The record's weakest points are other moments when the quality of the hooks drop. “My Utopia” is already a bit too much of a plain-faced love song for me to begin with. But then it doubles down with these very corny, dragged-out syllables on the chorus. “Footprints” is even worse and, for some reason, switches up the production style. The vocals are absolutely buried in the song, resulting in a hook you can hardly even parse and whispered refrains on the verses you can barely hear at all. 

Despite occasional slip-ups, Dreamwalker is a really promising step forward for Sorry Girls. Though they may not have the most original sound in the world, they are clearly equipped for serving up one elegant, dreamy pop song after another. Even more than that, they're flexing an impressive songwriting ability that helps the record's highlights soar. This will be an easy record to overlook for a lot of people, but one that's absolutely worth giving a shot, and with how great of a start it gets off to, you won't have to wait to see what Sorry Girls are capable of. 7/10

For more indie-pop, check out my review of Tune-Yards Better Dreaming