Following the release of the brilliant ‘Cosplay’ in 2025, Sorry head into their set at this year’s Green Man Festival with new single ‘Tom Will Smack Your Ass’, a track that feels both unmistakably Sorry and completely untethered from anything they’ve done before.
Asha Lorenz has the stunning ability to make vulnerability sound jagged. Her voice can be heartfelt one moment and cutting the next, possessing that rare quality of being instantly recognisable without ever feeling predictable. It’s one of the most unique voices in British alternative, and live, it cuts through everything around it.
‘Tom Will Smack Your Ass’ is perhaps as close to classic Sorry as you can get. The ever-adaptable Londoners refuse to stand still, though, and while the new single flirts with a familiar formula, its bouncy piano line and jumping bass providing an almost playful momentum, the lyricism lets it float somewhere stranger. There’s something satirical and jaded about the song’s portrayal of Tom and his questionable habits, yet it’s delivered with a kind of detached absurdity. “Fucks you in his car, it’s a Fiat” is funny, bleak and bizarrely human all at once. Sorry have always had a knack for finding the mythical in the mundane, turning the strange little characters and moments of everyday life into something that feels larger than itself.
The video builds on the absurd world Sorry like to free themselves in, asking fans to send in videos of, you guessed it, smacking their own asses. While Tom himself was nowhere to be seen smacking those bums, the band assure us that “No bums were harmed in the making of this video – thanks to everyone who contributed.” It’s exactly the kind of strange, chaotic humour that makes Sorry so compelling. They’ve created a world where the ridiculous is treated with complete sincerity.
It’s a perfect introduction to where Sorry might be heading next: familiar enough to feel like them, but weird enough to remind you that they’re still unwilling to stay in one place for too long.
Photo Credit: Tom Smacky Bum Bum
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