Squid Announce New Album 'Cowards' And UK Tour, Share Lead Single Crispy Skin
Wednesday, 13 November 2024
Written by Jon Stickler
Photo: Harrison Fishman
Squid have laid out plans for their third studio album.
The follow-up to last year's 'O Monolith' is titled 'Cowards' and will arrive on February 7. It was recorded with Mercury Prize-winning producer Marta Salogni and Grace Banks at Church Studios in Crouch End, London, with mixing handled in Seattle and mastering in New York.
The English band's longtime friend Dan Carey, who helmed Squid's previous two albums, receives a co-production credit, with contributions also coming from Danish singer Clarissa Connelly, composer and singer Tony Njoku, Rosa Brook of Pozi, percussionist Zands Duggan, and the Ruisi Quartet.
Alongside the record's announcement, Squid have shared its opening track, Crispy Skin, a sprawling six-minute opus incorporating glittering synths, a rhythmic bassline, stabbing strings and light piano melodies, with lyrics inspired by the book Tender Is The Flesh. Vocalist and drummer Ollie Judge said:
"'Crispy Skin' was lyrically inspired by a dystopian novel I read where cannibalism becomes the societal norm and humans are manufactured and sold in supermarkets. I think when most people read books like these they picture themselves as the sort of person that would take the moral high-ground within these narratives. The track was written about how the reality of having a moral-compass in these stories of desperation and horror would be extremely difficult."
Head below to view the single's accompanying video, directed by Takashi Ito and adapted from his 1995 experimental short film, Zone.
Squid will accompany the record's release with tour dates across the UK and Europe next spring. Tickets go on general sale at 10am GMT/11am CET on November 20, except for their dates in Germany, which are on sale now.
At the start of the year, they released the one-off single, Fugue (Bin Song), though it does not appear on the tracklist for 'Cowards'.
'Cowards' tracklist:
1. Crispy Skin
2. Building 650
3. Blood on the Boulders
4. Fieldworks I
5. Fieldworks II
6. Cro-Magnon Man
7. Cowards
8. Showtime!
9. Well Met (Fingers Through The Fence)
Squid Upcoming Tour Dates are as follows
Mon February 17 2025 - LIVERPOOL Invisible Wind Factory
Tue February 18 2025 - MANCHESTER O2 Ritz
Wed February 19 2025 - GLASGOW Old Fruitmarket
Fri February 21 2025 - NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE Northumbria Uni Domain
Sat February 22 2025 - SHEFFIELD Leadmill
Mon February 24 2025 - CAMBRIDGE Junction 1
Tue February 25 2025 - NORWICH Waterfront
Thu February 27 2025 - OXFORD O2 Academy Oxford
Fri February 28 2025 - SOUTHAMPTON Engine Rooms Southampton
Sat March 01 2025 - MARGATE Lido
Sun March 02 2025 - BRIGHTON Chalk
Tue March 04 2025 - BIRMINGHAM XOYO
Wed March 05 2025 - BRISTOL Bristol Beacon
Wed April 09 2025 - PARIS CABARET SAUVAGE (France)
Thu April 10 2025 - COLOGNE Club Volta (Germany)
Sat April 12 2025 - BERLIN Lido (Germany)
Mon April 14 2025 - SCHORNDORF Manufaktur (Germany)
Tue April 15 2025 - AMSTERDAM Melkweg (Netherlands)
Wed April 16 2025 - ANTWERP Trix (Belgium)
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