Brighton post punkers Squid release their third album `Cowards` this month two years on from `O Monolith`. Squid’s new album is about evil. Nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma, and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong.
`Crispy Skin` leads us in and opens with a shimmering synth like sound. According to singer and drummer Ollie Judge it “was lyrically inspired by a dystopian novel Tender Is The Flesh I read where cannibalism becomes the societal norm and humans are manufactured and sold in supermarkets.” The subject matter may be a little unsavoury but the number has a delightful charm about it as it evolves. It almost pauses on route before resuming its magnetic dreamy auditory journey. We have in `Building 650` a song inspired by the band`s first ever trip to Japan three years ago with lyrics about being an outsider, including a very particular type of loneliness one can feel visiting a country that is so different from their own. It`s a wonderfully reflective meandering offering which was fairly robust initially before mellowing out with some intricate guitar chords interspersed throughout and orchestrated strings in the latter section .
`Blood on the Boulders` examines the Manson Family murders through the lens of a ‘death tourist’ or YouTube content creator. A slow burn psychedelic tinged composition initially with vocals that are tenderly shared with some complementing female harmonies before it bursts to life with a more not aggressive but slightly hostile texture with angular sounds prior to climaxing with unsettling vocals repeating the song title as the number fades. I read that `Fieldworks I` and `Fieldworks II` which bleed from one into the other, explore a tragic feudal fairy tale. The initial piece was rather mesmerising with questioning vocals, distantly echoed which felt like it was about to burst before a clocklike sound eased us into and through the latter piece. It expanded musically with lyrics that were shared in a remote almost abstract fashion over a quite mesmerising almost cinematic soundscape. We are taken to a parallel timeline with `Cro-Magnon Man` where the objects that contain no meaning will likely outlive us all. It features vocals from guitarist Louis Borlase alongside Danish experimental songsmith Clarissa Connelly, composer, pianist and singer Tony Njoku and Rosa Brook from punk group Pozi. A mid to fast paced submission which is somewhat spellbinding.
Title track `Cowards` has the singer finding beauty in alienation, singing about the dream and his fear of freedom: inspired by Yorgos Lanthimos seminal feature Dogtooth. It was a number that had a kind of jazz shaded ambient texture. The band has said that `Showtime!` summons none other than Andy Warhol, as the lyrics tackle exploitation, ego, and abuse. It`s a surreal listen with the first couple of minutes pretty laid back before veering to a kind of computerised game sound. These differing hues entwine and join with an almost drum and bass tone which leads us through and out of the remainder of the song.
The album closes with the longest track on the release in `Well Met (Fingers Through The Fence`) where seemingly it relates to our apathy for the climate crisis imagined with the immediate impact of the nuclear holocaust in Terminator 2. It`s an offbeat quite unorthodox but enthralling ambling trip with brass and synth key colours added as we wander along.
`Cowards` is once again a pretty experimental almost prog like, avant-garde and at times off kilter musical voyage or journey but at the same time brilliantly compelling and captivating.
Squid head out on a fourteen date tour in support of the album beginning in Liverpool this month and ending in London towards the end of April and it`ll be fascinating to witness how these songs are presented in a live setting.
Rating 9/10
REVIEW: SQUID – COWARDS (2025)
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