After spending four years releasing singles and EPs, young British rockers Squid debuted their highly anticipated first full-length LP, Bright Green Field this spring. Noise rock fans everywhere can rejoice.
It is clear the band has spent time growing upon their own unique “post-genre” style. Bright Green Field capitalizes on the band’s best singles since 2017 and constructs that sound into songs more acceptable for a larger release. Gathering sounds from synths, horns, guitars, high-pitched vocals, and experimental drumming then turning them into two-part ballads is a difficult task. Squid delivers that idea multiple times throughout the record.
Not to mention, the album’s cover art was designed using artificial intelligence. The whole presentation, both musically and in packaging, is an ode to its subject matter.
The record’s eleven songs come in at 54 minutes and 46 seconds. It is not music for casual consumption. It is rather a showcase of production, lyricism, and pure musical talent. The major theme is about post-modern industrialism. It is a jab at the state of the world today.
It begins with a short introductory instrumental before drums carry into the first taste of the record’s overall sound on “G.S.K.,” a song about Big Pharma company GlaxoSmithKline. “On Concrete Island, I wave at the businessman,” shouts drummer and vocalist Ollie Judge. He describes every person in society’s social construct as a person in a suit and tie, toying with the idea that everyone is all trapped on an island run by large companies.
He thinks all are helpless without them and their drugs which will give freedom from the current pandemic, yet we are stuck on this slab of land until the next corporation comes to help solve the next issue. It is a chilling take on the current state of the world.
Next is “Narrator,” the best song on the record. This is where the one song in two parts concept takes off and tends to stay for the remainder of the record. Starting off as a jam with all sorts of grooviness, this sounds like a song you would listen to while out for a downtown walk but with a post-apocalyptic pep in your step. The sound then evolves through the gentle vocals of featured London singer Martha Skye Murphy.
She and Judge sing the words “I’ll play my part,” throughout the eight and a half minute track starting off as upbeat and happy, shocking and scary then erupting together at the end with a showcase of vocal talent. Judge screeches the line louder and repeatedly for the last few minutes, while Murphy shrieks pleasant higher notes over and over until the song settles into dust all while guitarist Louis Borlase lays down the psychedelic riff. “Narrator” is Squid’s masterpiece to date.
“Boy Racers” kicks off with a foot-tapping bassline and rhythm guitar, but trickles into the sound of darkness. Seriously, pure darkness. The last part of this seven-minute track has deep echoing stringed instruments fall to tragically unlit and nightmarish synths that really represent the record’s overall theme. Squid balances the songs on the LP’s first half with both upbeat and dreadful sounds.
Then we hear more of the promotional single’s from the record. “Paddling” models a style taken from “The Cleaner,” the band’s most well-known single before this release. Psychedelic repetitive lyrics and a slower pace eventually take off like a rocket. It is quite the opposite of the other songs at the beginning of the record and again serves as a balance.
Then there are tracks like “Documentary Filmmaker.” They shows the band’s lineage of influence from bands like MGMT or other synth and psychedelic pop rock groups. Not that we would classify Squid as such, but it is an undeniable factor on this song. Judge uses spoken word over trumpets and electronic elements and then bellows into his established shouting style. “2010” and “Pamphlets” share the same feeling and dislike for the current age of the world.
That sameness is the only glaring weakness the band has shown in four years. The record tends to sound repetitive as it comes to its conclusion. That is not necessarily a bad thing. Listeners would not stick around for the whole record if the sound was not appealing. While each song has a different element that makes it unique, they all embody similar styles in different patterns.
Squid had nearly been established since they started releasing music, Bright Green Field has definitely reserved their spot in modern rock fan’s hearts. It is a debut that lived up to the hype and then some. Fans on the internet are even calling it a possible album-of-the-year candidate. With morale that strong, it is hard to deny the impact they have. Just like the overall tempo of the album, there is nowhere for this band to go but up.
Stream Bright Green Field here.
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