Adults - the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless (2025)

London’s indie-punk band adults release their second full-length today via Fika Recordings, pulling together two years of slow changes, private anxieties and the background hum of a city busy pushing out its residents. They describe “the seeds we sow are sprouting buds nonetheless” as “a pocketful of seeds, ideas, loves, fears and hopes which have sprouted, grown, and intertwined over the past two years.” The record gathers “echoes of the songs and bands we love into deeply personal songs about growth, change, loss and love, set to the background hum of a world which wants to crush all hope.”

Compared to their debut “for everything, always”, this one took time. Three months recording on rooftops and inside South London warehouses with longtime collaborator Rich Mandell left room for refinement, repetition and accidental discoveries. They mention this is the longest they’ve ever spent on a record — the first album was done in a garage in a day — and while there’s intention in these tracks, the band were also just messing with loud amps and gear outside bedroom limitations.

That push-and-pull between melodic instinct and punk urgency isn’t planned. They explain it loosely: “Tom listens to a lot of fast, noisy music, Joely listens to more melodic music and we bully Joe to play the drums as fast as possible.” Spending more time writing together made space for harmonies and shared ideas, though they admit some of those melodies probably evaporated during the long tracking period. The album’s tone ends up conversational: dual voices occasionally contradicting each other, guitars looping into anxious circles, drums pushing the tempo like someone pacing.