The Daily Spin II

Sports | Naked All The Time

Welcome back to the Daily Spin. For the uninitiated, this is the series in which I review an album every day of 2025.

As was the case two years ago, my favorite song from each album can be found at the playlist linked here.

Album: Naked All The TIme (2015)

Artist: Sports

Link:

Short, sweet, and delightfully synthetic - Sports’ debut album Naked All The Time perfectly encapsulates what I look for in quick-hit 80s-tinged electro-pop. They’re not shy in the slightest about pulling their references - very similar to Djo, really, in that regard, and like him, this group makes it work for them in the best way.

This is most obvious in the vocals, dreamy to the end, shimmery and gauzy as though broadcasted over an old radio. The guitar sparkles, the synths are a gentle thrum that never really blast you out of your seat but instead accentuate and build everything else around them. It’s an album that reminisces of summer while rarely ever being so bold as to evoke the verbiage, making it all the more impressive how strong that sentiment is.

I know it’s March and this is the third of about eighteen false springs we’ll have this year, but it’s dang near 55 degrees in Minneapolis and the tee-shirts are back out despite getting three feet of snowdrift on my apartment balcony earlier this week. What better time to call forward to warmer days than when we leap forward?

Rating: 8/10

Best Tracks: Feels Like Magic

Worst Tracks: Strange to Hear