SPRINTS — Better

JUL 01 2025 · 12:00

SPRINTS — Better (2025) Director: Niamh Bryson Era: Post-Punk Revival / Shoegaze Crossover (2025) - Mid-2020s Irish underground rock scene; SPRINTS' sophomore era marked by tonal diversification away from garage-punk aggression toward textured, MBV-influenced melodicism High curatorial value as a document of SPRINTS' genre-boundary expansion and the creative partnership between the band and director Niamh Bryson across the All That Is Over campaign. The video's austere visual approach, its confirmed directorial attribution, and its position as the final pre-album single make it an important archival artifact of mid-2020s Irish indie rock's aesthetic self-definition. Bryson's work exemplifies a generation of Dublin-based directors bringing literary emotional intelligence to music video form. Context: Released September 3, 2025, 'Better' is the fourth and final pre-release single from SPRINTS' sophomore album All That Is Over (City Slang / Sub Pop, September 26, 2025). It marks a deliberate sonic departure from the band's signature garage-punk aggression, drawing explicit inspiration from My Bloody Valentine's Loveless and Amyl and the Sniffers' 'Big Dreams.' The track was an old demo revived during the band's transitional period following the departure of founding guitarist Colm O'Reilly and the integration of new member Zac Stephenson. Thematically, vocalist Karla Chubb frames it as a critique of conditional affection rather than romantic longing — a confessional, frank examination of relationships with a deceptively melodic surface. Bryson's video amplifies this emotional register with a breakup narrative rendered in near-monochrome realism, aligning with the mid-2020s Irish indie tendency toward unflinching psychological portraiture. Director notes: Bryson both directed and produced 'Better'. Confirmed across multiple music press outlets (Punknews, DIY Magazine, Dork, God Is In The TV, New Noise Magazine, Scientists of Sound) published on or around the September 3, 2025 single release date. Bryson has publicly commented on her creative approach: the video was conceived as a narrative echoing 'the deeply personal and yet universal experience of heartbreak,' inspired by the song's intimacy and vulnerability. DIY Magazine describes it as an 'emotion-laden, monochrome visualiser' following a protagonist processing a breakup. Bryson also directed the lead single 'Descartes' from the same album (All That Is Over), suggesting an ongoing creative partnership with SPRINTS for the album campaign.