Cowards

Pre-Order Item. Release Date Subject to Change.
Label: Warp
Release Date: 7th February

Squid's third album, no idea what to expect only super tight playing and a controlled freewheeling journey into post-punk jazz art rock madness. They so remind us of the post Beatles British experimental pop and rock scene with bands like 10cc, Pink Floyd, Genesis, Alex Harvey et al bringing in narrative and expansive sonic shifts with each new release but always bringing the hooks. 

Squid’s new album Cowards 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.

Cowards is Squid’s most courageous album: simultaneously growing in scope and returning to basics. The band recorded Cowards at Church Studios in Crouch End with Mercury prize winning producers Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. On additional production is longtime shifu and collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums. The record was mixed in Seattle by John McEntire, before being compressed by the rich analogue chain of Heba Kadry’s mastering in Brooklyn, New York.

Squid have come a long way since forming in 2016 as an instrumental jazz band for a monthly night in Brighton. Their debut album Bright Green Field (2021) arrived as the world was starting to open up after the pandemic and they broke into the top 5 in the UK chart. In 2023 they released their sophomore album, the brooding O Monolith, which took the band all over the world and broke new ground that hardly seemed possible years prior.