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“Feels like driving a throne / Immaculate leather and chrome…”
Hand-break off, SPORTS TEAM are back. With musical pedals to the metal and saxophones at full throttle, the Mercury-nominated six-piece today (July 18th) share new single ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)’ and announce their hotly anticipated third album ‘Boys These Days’ which is set for release February 28th via Distiller Records and Bright Antenna. The news comes alongside details of a nationwide UK tour in the autumn, as the band gear up to treat fans to an intimate show at Omeara in London this evening, which sold out in under three minutes.
Carpooling with the likes of Trust-era Elvis Costello, city-pop icon Mariya Takeuchi and Bryan Ferry shimmering with all his Roxy Music sophistication, ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)’ merges thematic lanes with Prefab Sprout’s ‘Cars and Girls’, to deliver an updated exploration of the cynical sting lurking behind the new car dream. It is shared alongside a video directed by Dora Paphides (The Last Dinner Party’s ‘My Lady of Mercy’).
Over smouldering saxophones that evoke the freedom of a neon highway, what starts out as a love song soon hand-break turns into a dissection of aspirational hype, as concepts of teenage rebellion, freedom and love are shamelessly enslaved to a consumerist dream. “The song captures that tension between those glossy inanimate objects you can project any desire onto versus all the stuff that creeps in behind it,” explains vocalist Alex Rice. “It should be a very uncomplicated love song, talking about cars and how people perceive their relationships, but with humanity, nothing is ever that simple.”
“Having been in London guitar world for a quite while, I began looking at people like Bryan Ferry and how it can be a bit more fun if you play around with characters,” Rice continues. “He looks like he’s having a better time than a lot of the bands from our generation, and that’s what you want to be shooting for. The video we did with Dora really taps into that dramatic side too. It’s something that has always been there, but it felt right to really explore it around this song.”
The horizon-capturing melodies of ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)’ reveal a dramatic shift of gears in Sports Team’s songwriting on third album ‘Boys These Days’, which boasts some of the band’s most dynamic musical performances to date and features hand painted artwork by Rob Knaggs. While its Top 3 predecessors, Deep Down Happy (No.2 in 2020) and Gulp! (No.3 in 2022), were recorded between bouts of intensive touring, the record not only follows the London-based band’s longest absence from a stage, and a switch of label (they signed to London-based Distiller at the end of 2023, who now represent them globally alongside Bright Antenna, the band’s longstanding US label partner) but it was created via a series of near hermetically sealed sessions in Bergen, Norway with producer Matthias Tellez (Girl in Red, CMAT).
Sports Team are delighted to announce details of a 10-date nationwide UK tour this autumn, kicking off in Manchester on November 14th and culminating in a show at London’s O2 Forum on November 24th. Tickets will go on sale on July 26th at 10am with a pre-sale on July 24th at 10am.
Tour dates are:
14th November – Manchester, New Century
15th November – Birmingham, The Castle & Falcon
16th November – Liverpool, Arts Club
18th November – Sheffield, Foundry
19th November – Glasgow, SWG3
20th November – Newcastle Upon Tyne, Boiler Shop
22nd November – Nottingham, Rescue Rooms
23rd November – Leeds, The Wardrobe
24th November – Bristol, The Trinity Centre
25th November – London, O2 Forum Kentish Town
‘Boys These Days’ is available to pre-order on CD, vinyl and cassette as well as a number of exclusive limited edition formats including a box set, a signed test pressing and picture disc vinyl.
Pre-save BOYS THESE DAYS ALBUM
Sports Team are Alex Rice (vocals), Robert Knaggs (lyrics, backing vocals, rhythm guitar), Henry Young (lead guitar, lap steel), Oli Dewdney (bass), Al Greenwood (drums) and Ben Mack (synths, piano & percussion).
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