That's the Spirit
The title of That's the Spirit sounds encouraging, but the music keeps questioning that encouragement. Bright, easily remembered choruses carry anxiety, disappointment and exhaustion. Bring Me the Horizon makes the contrast central to the album, using the language of a large rock celebration for feelings that remain difficult to resolve.
Doomed gives that idea an effective opening. Electronic pulses and small vocal fragments create nervous movement before Oli Sykes reaches the main melody. The arrangement expands steadily, with the chorus sounding earned by the restraint around it. His cleaner delivery has enough strain to keep the song's scale connected to an individual voice.
Happy Song is deliberately more blunt. A cheerleader-style chant sits against a heavy riff, making the promise of collective relief sound slightly forced. The song works because the drums and guitar keep that tension physical. Throne is a tighter, more electronic variation, with a simple hook placed inside an arrangement built for immediate impact. Neither track hides its interest in reaching a large audience.
Drown gives the album a stronger emotional center. Its chorus is broad, but the vocal phrasing makes the request for help feel exposed rather than triumphant. Follow You uses a softer rhythmic setting and electronic details to achieve a related closeness. Those tracks show that reducing the amount of screaming can create another kind of intensity instead of merely lowering it.
The album is less persuasive when the lyrics reach for a striking phrase and land on something too obvious. True Friends has a strong musical outline but a central idea that does not gain much from repetition. Some choruses also resolve the tension so thoroughly that the surrounding uncertainty loses its character. The lighter closing movement of Oh No is interesting, though less affecting than the best material.
That's the Spirit has a consistent purpose and several songs strong enough to fulfill it. The production gives every hook a clear space, while Sykes keeps a useful roughness in the delivery. At its best, the album understands why someone might want a huge chorus while feeling far from happy, and it makes that contradiction sound convincing.
