Delorentos’ third album was released on 27 January 2012. It had been recorded over the summer of 2011 with producer Rob Kirwan in Grouse Lodge studios, Westmeath and Exchequer Studios Dublin. The album was different as Kirwan insisted on two weeks’ Pre-production beforehand, something the band had not down before. The record was recorded over three months with engineer Colin Murphy, and Cenzo Townsend additionally mixing a number of tracks. The first single from the record, “Did we ever really Try” was released in October 2011 with an accompanying EP Magazine – written by the band with contributions from other artists and musicians. It reached number 10 on the charts, despite not being available in record stores, only the band’s own “pop-up stores”.

The release was notable for its inventive release campaign: they toured acoustically to release the preceding EP, “Little Sparks EP” (which was released as part of a full-colour 40-page creative magazine), they slowly released their songs on YouTube as part of an Acoustic project, and they opened up their own pop-up record shops to perform in on the week of release. The latter idea proved to be very popular – with the band visiting cities around Ireland and opening up one-day stores in empty shops. The band discussed this radical new idea on RTÉ’s”The Business with George Lee” and Today FM’s “The Last Word with Matt cooper”, and the shops were also written about in the Irish Times. The critical reception to the record was the best of the band’s career, with five-star reviews from State.ie, Mail on Sunday, the Star and Heinekenmusic.ie, and 4.5 stars from Entertainment.ie, and 4 stars from Hotpress, Irish Times,Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Metro, RTÉ guide, Goldenplec.ie and many more. It was described by entertainment.ie: “Little Sparks is not only an album which is Delorentos’ best work to date, but one of the finest Irish releases of recent times” and by the Irish Times as “Full of brave, bracing and emotionally direct songs, it’s the sound of a band who have found their musical and lyrical groove.”, and by hotpress as “An early bid for Irish album of the year… Little sparks is the sound of a group striving to write the flab-free, solid-gold pop record of their lives, mission accomplished.”