Album Review: Sweet Pill - 'Still, There's a Glow'
Philadelphia's Sweet Pill overcome adversity in heartfelt emo return.
When the bands' debut album, 'Where the Heart is' landed in 2022, no one expected for it to hit the heights as it did, least of all those in the band themselves. With blazing math-rock and introspective emo ballads, the unbound debut rife took off at an unrivalled speed almost too much for them to keep up with. While Williams'/McCall's trudging riffs and Kearney's tetchy percussion brought sensibility to the song's foundations, it was Zayna Youssef's voice that was arguably the bands' trump card and you can bet they were going to use it. Blistering 'Blood' and knotty blow-out of the self-titled eclipsed all expectations from a band seemingly learning on the job. While earning cosigns from stars like Hayley Williams and Doja Cat, 2024's summer brought Sweet Pill to the UK for Outbreak Festival, and spring 2025 saw them appear in Australia before going to Europe in support of Movements.
But for any band facing insurmountable pressure and expectancy for what's next; the comedown was seemingly inevitable. The exhaustion of three years of consistent travel, while the next project looming over you like a bad smell cannot be coined as just a mere speed-bump in the road. Alas, the weight of the demand could not be shaken off as the band essentially scrapped an entire albums' worth of demos, just to save what mental capacity they had left. They had to move on their own time, figuring out one step at a time.
And so it came to be that 'Still, There's a Glow' was to be the bands' response to the pressures of 'that second album' in what Youssef called “the hardest thing I’ve had to do." Living the reality of a true artist, it is an unflinching 13-track play-by-play of a band putting itself back together again with every emotion felt; every chord reconfigured; every lyric trail-and-errored until a glow comes from the darkness.
Marking a shift in Sweet Pill's creative set-up - with it being the first LP were the full quintet had songwriting credits - it sees the band splurge out a cacophony of frustration, elation and release they've been feeling since post-Where the Heart is. And what a feeling it is.
Despite its turmoils, the record actually starts with a positive message. Fast and frantic 'Sunblind' enjoys the spoils of life, "“Push back your hair so that you can see / Clear the air with every breath you breathe / Say the words you really mean / I'm alive!" 'Shameless' swathes in with the same energy, intricate math-rock chord quips dance along while 'No Control' enters more the straight-edged punk as Youseff chants her vocals into another project to breathe life into - despite appearances of the debut operating at near-perfect capacity, "Holding onto something gold / But I always want more."
Continuing the depictions of rising from the ashes of an aforementioned blaze, 'Slow Burn' is a two-minute rager and 'Smoke Screen' tempts a pause for reflection as Youssef croons “I feel flammable, my mouth is a torch," affirming the thesis of destruction told throughout. Depicting a fragile tendency with life and its relationships, 'What the Devil is Selling' distills a sombre tone amongst an honesty token.
The records' most poignant moments come during the final third with 'Tough Love', 'Holding On' and 'Letting Go.' A trifecta of beautiful moments pausing for thought and looking inward, as one of the most tumultuous moments of the guys' career comes to an end.
'Still, There's a Glow' is a hard-fought honesty box of home truths presented in a dizzying display of emo punk. Standing as the proof for a bands' ultimate survival and growth in an ever-increasingly hazardous landscape, Sweet Pill manage to keep their heads above the water.
The desire to better yourself at every stage has always been unequivocally human. That's why the persecution of artists with a "Sophomore Slump" coinage may never go away. Luckily, we have the likes of Sweet Pill to remind us that there may very well be reason to hold out hope.
Words by Alex Curle
