Gulp! by Sports Team

Gulp!, Sports Team's second album, finally reached the shops through Island on 23 September 2022 after a bumpy run-up: first promised for July, then pushed to late August over production problems, then pushed again, with the band's US tour scrapped along the way. Burke Reid produced it, and the London six-piece sound like they're trying to cram a whole pub's worth of nervous energy into every chorus.

The singles tell the story. "R Entertainment" kicked things off in March, "The Game" came with a video featuring John Otway and landed on the NHL 23 soundtrack, and "Cool It Kid", with Asha Lorenz of Sorry adding her voice, is a note to self about not letting stress and irrational feelings take the wheel. "The Drop" followed in August. Through all of it Alex Rice sings like a man with a point to prove, and the guitars of Rob Knaggs and Henry Young keep elbowing him along.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.