A bold, expansive, experimental and exciting full debut by the postpunk Brighton five-piece, with songs full of musical adventure and dynamic changes, combining krautrock, prog and even a dash of jazz. After their excellent single Houseplants brought them to prominence in 2019, it would not unreasonable for their eventually album to contain a series of short, shouty, punchy numbers, not unlike their rather fine postpunk contemporaries, Mush from Leeds, but instead, perhaps helped under brilliant wing of producer Dan Carey, who has a penchant for bringing out their best in original new bands, they have gone on a different route, with some longer multi-sectioned ambitious numbers bathed in rich guitar layers, horns and mre, particularly Narrator, Boy Racers, Paddling, and last track Pamphlets. There is also no shortage of political and social commentary here, the latter laying into right-wing media, G.S.K. sticking it to GlaxoSmithKline, the talking satirically caustic number Documentary Filmmaker, and on Global Groove, an odder, another experimental number with jazz trumpets, singer and drummer Ollie Judge sings: “Watch your favourite war on TV just before you go to sleep.” There is a fascinating variety of pace changes and volume changes, but Squid still seem most at home with a blisteringly fierce guitar riff and pace, with Judge shouting angrily, particularly on Peel St or the single Paddling, and especially on the 8-minute Narrator he and guest vocalist Martha Skye Murphy reach to blood-curdling scream level out of a variety of other sections. Budding full of ideas, impassioned energy and confidence to experiment, one of the best debuts of the year. Out on Warp.
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