‘sweet debauchery’ by the connecting dots is an album that stares the world straight in the eye – war, disinformation, broken systems – and still finds a way to thread melody through the chaos. it’s darker than their past work, sharper, and more urgent, but it never loses the band’s gift for shimmering hooks and cinematic sweep.

from stockholm, helena sundström leads with a voice that is both fragile and defiant, carrying songs that move between dream pop haze, 90s indie grit, and synth-soaked atmospheres. opener modern shapes sets the tone with a blunt look at the human condition, while weekend offers a lighter escape, a reminder that joy still flickers even in bleak times. dominoes leans into epic choruses and vintage synths, about chance and risk, while ends meet captures the reckless certainty of youth slipping away.

the title track, lifted from the final song, becomes the album’s axis – humanity’s indulgence, its contradictions, its desperate beauty. morning disco spins everyday pressures into bowie-esque guitar sparkle, the sweet life and jupiter falling dig into loss and collapse, and closer leave all that glitters behind grounds everything in lived reality: the story of two girls fleeing ukraine, seeking scraps of joy just to survive.

it’s eclectic, yes, but threaded together by a refusal to look away. in a world of ai gloss and 100,000 new uploads a day, sweet debauchery feels tactile, human, necessary.

thank u for making this the connecting dots 🌑