Scott's improved songcraft and her experiences since Torres give Sprinter a character the first album didn't really hint at, and couldn't have, as it is the product of two years' worth of emotional upheaval that included personal betrayals and a redefinition of her religious faith. It starts at its most intense with "Strange Hellos", which recalls Nirvana, and I mean that reverently, not reductively; here, Scott channels Cobain better than anyone else I've ever heard as she excoriates a former friend. The song casts a shadow long enough to obscure the rest of the album, at least at first. Other highlights "Ferris Wheel" and "The Exchange" burn more slowly, but no less brightly than "Waterfall" from the first album. Sprinter doesn't hide its influences (90s rock in particular), yet defies easy categorisation throughout and presents multiple doors for Mackenzie Scott to kick down in the future.
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