Sports Team Turn Away From Their Strengths on Boys These Days
The London sextet’s latest LP pivots from post-punk to a warm, radio-friendly rock sound that’s pillowy, soft, and non-threatening.
London-based sextet Sports Team set their sights on America. Gone is the post-punk of 2020’s Deep Down Happy or 2022’s Gulp! Eager to write Radio 2 pop music, their third album Boys These Days shoots for Bruce Springsteen and settles for somewhere south of Sam Fender. They try to appeal to the masses through broad, State of the World social commentary, but they can’t escape their own irony. Made with producer Matias Tellez (CMAT, girl in red), Boys These Days makes a pivot to warm, radio-friendly rock. It’s pillowy, soft, and non-threatening.
Like previous work from Sports Team, Boys These Days aims for tongue-in-cheek material, but the album spends more time naming problems than actually satirizing them. The band widens their topics of choice from middle-class England to the woes of late-stage capitalism: “Planned Obsolescence” addresses tech enshittification, “Maybe When We’re 30” takes a stab at Facebook and The Daily Mail, “Head to Space” is about fleeing Earth due to climate catastrophe. But these references to modern media slop or tech oligarchy are little more than just that: references. They lack any perspective beyond headline-level recognition of an issue. “IHOP, Venmo, TNT / Mickey Mouse, AR-15 / An Open carry / Don’t say state / Incel, insult, NDA,” frontman Alex Rice lists out on “Bang Bang Bang,” like if Grok tried to write a 21st century “We Didn’t Start the Fire.” The band accompanies these listicle mouthfuls with a Western-style whistlin’ shuffle, turning this supposed satire of American gun culture into a bad gimmick.
“Sensible” is a portrait of a London urbanite who drinks a “crisp Chianti,” speaks in metaphors, and “fucks remotely.” “You’re all so sensibly numb,” Rice sings in the chorus, the heavy-hitting central line in this meek satire. Pointing something out is quite different than having something to say, and the song provides no insight into London’s rich young urbanites that a short walk through Spitalfields won’t already show you. It has no risk; nothing is at stake to make the satire sting. It’s a bit mean to the yuppies, but not enough to make anyone actually reflect on contemporary consumerist culture. If anything in “Sensible” has the proper snarl, it’s the song’s diss towards Fred Again. Though, of course, the band is actually a fan of Fred Again..’s work, so even this stray bullet is hedged in irony. On their old records, Sports Team thrived in the details: they took digs at snobby bands or talked about bad haircuts that looked like a “suburban monk.” Through these details, the band grounded you in their distinctly British ennui. As they expand their scope on Boys These Days, they also lose their expertise. More often than not, they come off like the very yuppies they’re trying to make fun of.