Sports Team are back with fiery new single “Cool It Kid”. The 6 piece indie rockers from The University of Cambridge are currently bouncing from one city to another across the UK and Europe promoting their new album Gulp, due out on the 22nd of July this year. The band blend rowdy indie riffage with Alex Rice’s melodiously shouty vocal to produce a sound reminiscent of Modest Mouse, just with the intelligent lyrical commentary of their lofty academic origins.
They received favourable reviews across the board for their debut album Deep Down Happy, gaining a nomination for the 2020 Mercury Prize and even battling Lady Gaga in a hotly contested fight for the No.1 position on the UK Album Charts. They ended up narrowly losing out to the American juggernaut, peaking at No.2 in the UK in June 2020, but going to No.1 in Scotland.
A fair amount of pressure naturally follows in the wake of their debuts success, the age old problem of the difficult second album, however judging by what we’ve heard so far, it’s looking in good shape. Last month I covered their catchy and enjoyably boisterous single “The Game”, and now we have the follow up “Cool It Kid”. It opens up with a plodding Pixies-esque bass line and spacious distorted guitar before Rice’s nasally idiosyncratic vocal storms in with “Doctor doctor my heart’s on so tight, It sings like lobsters when you boil them alive“. A pretty gruelling opening sentiment then, we do hope you are alright Alex. Laterally the song picks up into a simple yet emphatic chorus “Hey! Cool it kid, Hold your ground, The wheels that are running you down, Will come around“. You can check it out here:
Speaking recently with NME, Sports Team said that the song is about “getting too deep in your stress about stuff and sometimes saying to yourself, ‘You know what, maybe sometimes you should sit back and it’s best not to react on your intense irrational emotions.”
The band have an 11-date tour scheduled across the UK and Ireland between October 11 and 25 2022, with 17 shows in the US also preceding this from mid September until early October. They have quite the live reputation too, often taking fan interaction to the next level by inviting the whole venue to the pub with them afterwards, so if you fancy a pint with the lads then I suggest grabbing a ticket to see them soon.
Sports Team are scheduled to play shows in Leeds Glasgow, Birmingham, Manchester, Nottingham, Southampton, Bristol, Norwich, London, Belfast and Dublin throughout October with tickets on sale now. You can grab them here.
