REVIEW: Sweet Pill - Still There's A Glow

Convincing you to go convinces me to hold on

41:57 // March 13th, 2026 // Hopeless Records

As much as I love the steady heartbeat of a patient buildup to set an album’s emotional tone, the amount of music I listen to has conditioned a sense of relief into me when an artist simply cuts to the chase. Philly-based emo quintet Sweet Pill do just that to draw back the curtain on their sophomore effort Still There’s A Glow with the rollicking “Sunblind”; one cracking snare hit signals the only moment listeners will have to catch their breath before thundering power chords, frenetic leads, sugary harmonies, and rapid meter shifts hit the bullseye and drop them into the dunk tank. In the nearly four years since their full-length debut Where the Heart Is, Sweet Pill may have switched labels, but have mostly doubled down on everything that made their initial output of songs resonate with so many. The returning production team of Matt Weber (mixing/engineering) and Dave Downham (mastering) have opted for a crisper, cleaner approach to the Sweet Pill sound here, as opposed to the dirtier, more organic presentation of Where the Heart Is. This decision makes for an overall smoother listening experience across an entire record, but occasionally fails to cover up some minor songwriting blips along the way.

The insatiable energy of a track like “Sunblind” is thankfully more of a rule than an exception across Glow’s star-studded tracklist. A seamless transition into the arguably equal “Shameless” showcases even more of Sweet Pill’s strengths in a focused and compact three-minute package. Observe the way lead vocalist Zayna Youssef both shares the spotlight and beautifully harmonizes with guitarist Sean McCall, who pulls phenomenal double duty by creating dizzying melodic impressions up and down the neck with fellow guitarist Jayce Williams. “Shameless” can almost be seen as a sort of premonition for what each member of the band is capable of later down the line; Ryan Cullen’s acrobatic bass line augurs some of his more aggressive playing in tracks like “Holding On”, while Youssef and McCall’s beautiful vocal blend is served with even stronger flavor on tracks like lead single “No Control”, the bouncy “Makes Me Sick”, or stunning closing statement “Letting Go”. The track even lyrically references the album’s gutting one-two punch of closing tracks, forming a sort of thematic loop that ends where it begins and vice versa.

In a review that opens with a mention of steady heartbeats, it would be a sin not to mention Sweet Pill’s undisputed MVP, drummer Chris Kearney. Make no mistake, every other member of the lineup turns in a top-tier performance across the majority of the record, but it’s Kearney’s orchestration and rhythmic instincts that turn the bulk of the compositions on Glow into true musical highlights of 2026 thus far. This has little to do with speed in and of itself, although his chops are placed front and center on faster tunes like “Sunblind”, “Letting Go”, and “Jinx”, the latter of which contains a cheeky metric modulation segment. It’s the musicality of his playing that truly shines, and it shines through brightest on spacier tracks like pseudo-title track “Glow” or the stirring “Tough Love”, which staggers to the finish line courtesy of a simple, yet striking polymetric cadence.

Sweet Pill are at their best when composing fascinating little musical puzzles such as these, regardless of tempo or length. On the rare occasions that they steer too far away from what’s keeping Glow’s engine churning, the results aren’t catastrophic by any means, but are jarring enough to create a noticeable amount of turbulence. Previously released single “Slow Burn” is anything but, and resembles the aforementioned engine flooding and stalling, if anything. The rich, layered, and creative riffs found throughout the rest of the album are MIA here, replaced with a nauseous chromatic progression that matches poorly with Youssef’s vocal delivery. “Rotten” isn’t quite as….well, rotten, although it can certainly join “Slow Burn” in the category of being pedestrian and melodically flat. If I could convert this critical section into a backhanded compliment, it’s impressive how most of Glow is so complex and rewarding that its more straightforward numbers can be easily singled out as inferior. The less rewarding the instrumentation is to listen to, the more listeners’ ear will bend to focus on the lyricism, which is never bad, but always simply “standard”. The previously mentioned themes of both holding onto and letting go of pain are the themes of the album, and listeners can expect to be beaten over the head with them until its conclusion.

It’s apparent just how much Sweet Pill have leveled up with Still There’s A Glow, whether it be from a songwriting, production, or technicality perspective. In a market oversaturated with fast tapping, frantic drum fills, and attention-grabbing TikTok snippets, Sweet Pill stand out with a deeper and more intricate approach to the musical stereotypes of their specific emo subgenre, sprinkling soul into their banger-craft to create one of the most replayable albums released so far this year. Warts and all, Still There’s A Glow can make an inroad to almost any playlist you create, be accepted as a soundtrack at almost any social gathering, and offer a fulfilling listen to almost any enjoyer of music. To this writer, that’s the hallmark of a truly great record.

8.5/10.

Yo Yo, check out these highlight tracks:

-Sunblind

-No Control

-Letting Go