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Sorry Holly – A Post-Punk Reckoning: Use Your Heart

Fernando Triff

The heart of post-punk beats strongest when it’s torn between defiance and vulnerability, and Portland’s Sorry Holly wears both on their sleeve with Use Your Heart. The trio’s long-awaited full-length debut is a raw, urgent blast of emo-drenched noise, brimming with the kind of cathartic energy that only comes from a decade of near-misses and delayed dreams. Finally recording in 2023 with producer Simon Small at Chicago’s Type One Studios, Sorry Holly emerges with a record that feels like both a reunion and a reckoning.


From the first pummeling seconds of the opening track, Use Your Heart doesn’t ask for permission—it kicks down the door. The band’s chemistry is undeniable, forged in years of stop-start momentum, but now fully ignited. The guitars shimmer and snarl in equal measure, laying the groundwork for vocals that oscillate between desperate pleas and soaring declarations. There’s no wasted space here, no filler—just ten tracks of pulsating, poetic rock that hit like a punch to the gut and a hand on the shoulder at the same time.


Lyrically, Use Your Heart is a love letter to everything that slips through our fingers: relationships that unravel, friendships that fade, the ghosts of our younger selves. But instead of dwelling in sorrow, the album surges forward with restless energy. Tracks like “Dental” and “Hell is Paved” feel like the sonic equivalent of reliving a past heartbreak in real-time, while “SJC” injects a jolt of anthemic intensity that begs for a live audience to scream along. The whole album feels like a conversation between the past and present, each track a bridge between regret and release.


What makes Sorry Holly stand out isn’t just their ability to tap into post-punk’s signature blend of melancholy and muscle—it’s the sincerity that runs through every note. There’s no over-calculated cool here, no detached irony. This is music that bleeds. It aches. It remembers.


For anyone who’s ever felt the sting of nostalgia at 2 AM, Use Your Heart is an album that understands. It’s a record that doesn’t just reflect on the past—it yells back at it. And in doing so, Sorry Holly has crafted an instant post-punk classic. Turn it up, let it crash over you, and most importantly, use your heart.





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