Do you still see the monsters that you did when you were a kid? The ones that flit through your peripheral vision, prickling in the dimly lit corners? We reckon Squid do, we reckon that they sat in that inbetween world and let the monsters strum out the opening chords of their new album ‘Cowards’.
These opening two tunes were released as singles already, to enormous success. The opening track ‘Crispy Skin’ unfurls with the scattering of a synth, chasing recklessly a whiny guitar. The song slides disconcertingly into quieter moments from time to time, almost as if it’s adjusting itself to the album. ‘Building 650’, the other single, is similar, hanging ominously below ‘Crispy Skin’ from a rope made of intertwined textures. The vocals thrash amongst the threads of the tune, propelling the album into glorious heights.
As the best disturbing stories do, the rest of ‘Cowards’ crawls in under increasingly more twisted disguises. ‘Blood on the Boulders’ lets the twinkling of a distant guitar swell into a dissonant chorus of chanting whilst the strings of ‘Fieldworks I’ hover gently in a static-y haze.
The title track ‘Cowards’ is nothing less than a masterpiece (the monster under the bed isn’t credited but who really knows for this one) beginning with a menacing flock of strings and vocals that drag across the microphone. It builds into an agonisingly beautiful crescendo of brass, a euphoria of colours billow from lead singer Ollie Judge’s voice as it sails towards the end of the album.
‘Well met’, the final track is an amazing eight minute experimentation with what ‘Cowards’ is, the featheriness of the vocals contrasted with their drive, the spider-like qualities of the synth in opposition to width of the brass. ‘Cowards’ is the precipice, the dimly lit corner, ‘Cowards’ is that strange inbetween world that you never want to leave.
Catch Squid on tour this February. Tickets here.
17.02 - Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool, UK
18.02 - O2 Ritz Manchester, Manchester, UK
19.02 - Old Fruitmarket, Glasgow, UK
21.02 - NSU Domain, Newcastle, UK
22.02 - Leadmill, Sheffield, UK
24.02 - Junction 1, Cambridge, UK
25.03 - The Adrian Flux Waterfront, Norwich, UK
27.02 - O2 Academy Oxford, Oxford, UK
28.02 - Engine Rooms, Southampton, UK
01.03 - Lido, Margate, UK
02.03 - Chalk, Brighton, UK
04.03 - XOYO, Birmingham, UK
05.03 - Bristol Beacon, Bristol, UK
26.04 - Roundhouse, London, UK
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