REVIEW: Sydney Sprague's "somebody in hell loves you" via Rude

In 2021 maybe i will see you at the end of the world just missed this blog’s top ten albums of the year by a single place. In the following year however, that very record earned a bigger place in my heart than just about any of the ten that were above it. I bonded with my dear friend, three thousand miles away, by listening to it with them on a call. I listened to it on my own time, tirelessly, as I wallowed and tried to figure out how to tell my mother she had a daughter and not a son. It felt like the world was ending and it made for a fitting soundtrack to my own personal apocalypse. I told her, the world was still there, and time went on. This time, me and that friend, now living together, listened to it as I laid on their chest, recovering from a pretty scary night. I knew, regardless of how we felt, the album itself would be special to me.

It helps then, that I happen to like it quite a bit.

While Sydney digs deep into modern pop rock on somebody in hell, so much so that she borrows from other notable bands in the scene, there’s a lot of genre exploration in smaller moments throughout the record. The most prominent of those additional styles, likely because of her Arizona upbringing, is a certain type of country pop rock. On songs like “lsob” Sydney sings about jealousy and a force tearing apart a home with a certain inflection that can’t really be denied. On the main hook she asks the subject to “come back and tell her what to do,” with a vocal melody that sounds like it could have been on a country station in the 2000s. However, as I said, she ever dips her head in other spaces, the very same song has an outro that serves as both an addendum and its own punk rock jam.

While a lot of the writing here is fairly simplistic, it has its own complexities to explore within, even outside of a moment as outlandish as shifting genres. Songs like “Overkill” take the indie pop sonics to their absolute limit with guitar playing transcending simple singer-songwriter chords. “Data Analysis” is a great showcasing especially of how good a guitar player Sydney truly is and her pained delivery on the same track make her case as a vocalist as well. All of this and she still finds a way to sneak pop punk chords toward the end, proving she keeps up with the best of the best in midwestern emo right now. There’s even some post-hardcore toward the ending of “Terrible Places,” light as it may be.

All of the songwriting skills aside, where she really shines, where this record’s real power is, is in the lyricism. A lot of the songs here are pandemic journaling which, yes, doesn’t hit quite as hard as the deep concepts of end of the world, however it allows her to show her hand as a storyteller instead. On the opening song “If I’m Honest” Sydney talks about being chained by her own inability to move on or forgive and sets herself up as an honest unreliable narrator. On “Smiley Face” she does no good job fooling anybody as she tries to convince herself of being fine following awful nightmares and finally, in the bridge, asks “baby do you love me now? Realizing right after “you hesitated.” Tracks like “Data Analysis” cut deep with lines like “an answer leads to ten other questions” and “how much space can you take up in my brain before it splits in two?” Here she sings through her own split emotions and trying to make her way through conflicting feelings toward more than one person at the same time.

“Nobody Knows Anything” really sticks out to me on the record even if it didn’t quite shine as a single. The hook here is very strong and while it does border on being a bit overused Sydney makes sure to spice it up toward the end with some backing vocal layers. I come from a bigger family where the motto is that until adulthood everyone thinks “they know everything” and is usually used to dismiss those of us in adolescence when we disagree with our parents. In reality, when I was younger, I didn’t think I knew anything! I felt lost all the time! Hell, I still do! You’re right, Syd, nobody knows anything that actually matters, nothing which will truly help themselves when it matters.

Other tracks worth individual note is “God Damn it Jane,” which does hit on an emotional level, but I have to be honest in saying it was really cushioned to me when I found out it's about an argument eavesdropped on from a thin apartment wall and when I find the vocals to be quite drowned in certain points of the song. “Terrible Places” however, was chosen as the post-release single and does an incredible job of narrating anxiety over a fun-seeming rock cut. When Sydney asks if her partner “ever really existed” I’m honestly taken back because it's a very specific thing that my own anxiety generates when I’m spiraling even if I know it sounds too ridiculous to be real.

I do think, overall, end of the world hits a little harder. That record was conceptual through and through though, using very song structures as callbacks to previous moments on the record. Somebody in hell loves you is a record where Sydney Sprague shares scattered stories from her own life. One where she is quite honest in that she isn’t perfect, shows us a side of her which maybe is less than favorable, shows us that she uses her apathy and ability to be cold as a suit of armor. She’s willing to show all of that pain and wear it on her sleeve, all while delivering solid songs and taking some risks along the way.

The day after, my friend and I talked about our differing opinions on the record and I realized even if we didn’t feel as strong about it as the first time, for different reasons and at different levels of enjoyment, we were able to bond over it. The final song here, “Sketching Lessons,” serves as a response to the first song off the first album, “I Refuse to Die.” And you know what Sydney? It is going to be okay. Maybe not today, tonight, this weekend or anytime soon. But it is. We can pretend it is until it isn’t. Thank you for another one, it’s already helping so much.

I loved this record

1. if im honest
2. lsob
3. overkill
4. data analysis
5. smiley face
6. nobody knows anything
7. god damn it jane
8. hello cruel world
9. big star go
10. terrible places
11. sketching lessons

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