Squid will release a new album called O Monolith on June 9 through Warp, following up their beloved debut album Bright Green Field.
About O Monolith, the band reveal: “There’s a running theme of the relation of people to the environment throughout. There are allusions to the world we became so immersed in, environmental emergency, the role of domesticity, and the displacement you feel when you’re away [from the countryside] for a long time.”
They’ve shared the lead single “Swing (In A Dream)”, which singing drummer Ollie Judge says was inspired by a dream he had about a painting called “The Swing” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard. “In my dream, I was in the painting but it was flooded and everything was floating away,” he says.
Squid have concocted an appropriately daunting sound to house this recounting of this dream, with their usual piles of analog sound building up into something dark and domineering. Bright Green Field has many allusions to the world’s ills, but “Swing (In A Dream)” feels like being trapped in destruction’s looming shadow, helplessly scrabbling to get away. Reflections of climate change are rife, with Judge singing of rain and floating away – only to then wake up from his dream and realise reality is just as fearsome, if not moreso. Squid then rampage through a hair-raising finale to reflect this state of constant anxiety.
Watch the video for “Swing (In A Dream)” below or find the song on streamers.
Squid’s new album O Monolith arrives on June 9 through Warp. You can find the band on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
