Bright Green Field - Squid: Review

Squid

are a British post-punk outfit who have been active for a few years now and are coming on the back of a couple of widely acclaimed singles and EPs. They have been discussed in the same circles as other British post-punk acts who have emerged recently, namely Black Country New Road and Black Midi, both of whom have found enormous critical success. 

Review By Lav:

Man was I excited for this record. I first heard about Squid from their Town Centre EP which was on my list of stuff to review way back in 2019 but I unfortunately didn't end up getting around to it. Now I wish I had because in the time since both Black Country, New Road and Black Midi have released great debut albums and Squid dropped a couple of absolutely killer singles. In a year where we've already seen so much great experimental rock and specifically post-punk from the likes of Shame, Iceage and Viagra Boys, Squid is yet another major hit for the genre that is having quite a grandiose revitalization. 

I can't wait one more second without talking about Narrator. The track was released as a single earlier this year and turned my casual interest in the record into fervent anticipation. The songs bouncy instrumentation is completely infectious and yet its the hook that I haven't been able to get out of my head for months. Ollie's snarling vocals add the perfect amount of grit to his lyrical claims. The song refuses to rest on its laurels either as it spends 8 minutes working through winding, insane instrumental passages and a significant vocal feature from Marth Skye Murphy. It is still one of the best songs I've heard all year, period. 

When all was said and done I enjoyed the trio of singles quite a bit. Paddling was up next and it starts off with a methodical percussive intro before some call and response vocals crash into it. The track kind of abandons its driving instrumental part way through and jumps into something a little looser but that is only the first of many sonic switch-ups over 6 minutes. I like that the vocals are constantly shifting in style and re-upping the songs energy just making it exciting from start to finish. The closing track Pamphlets seemed to be an instant fan favorite when it was released as a single even though my reception of the song was a bit more mild. It explodes out of the gate with a loud instrumental that doesn't necessary knock my socks off like some others here. It's really Ollie that steals the show here with some of my favorite lyrics on the album and a zany performance style that I find totally infectious. The instrumental isn't bad or anything and it manages to pretty seamlessly transition between the songs harshest moments to its haziest and most reserved with ease. Thankfully it ends the whole thing off on an explosive instrumental passage that feels incredible fitting as a conclusion to the record.

G.S.K is the first full song on the record and in case you hadn't been introduced to the kind of vocals you're going to hear on a Squid album that band wastes no time forcing you to get to know Ollie. His intense snarling vocals are one of the first things you hear on a song that also features an instrumental bouncing between disjointed horns and more conventional rock style instrumentation with a garage flare. The song is a compositionally winding and instrumentally intense opener that I can't help but adore. Boy Racers is really something. It kicks off with a killer groove and features some of the sassiest vocals I've heard on any album this year. Despite how good the first half of the song is the whole second half is a drone like experimental blur of formless chords and sounds. It's a stark transition that gets heavier as it gets more unhinged but honestly there is something about the grinding noise that I find myself getting easily lost in. 

Peel St. kind of came out of nowhere to become one of my favorite tracks on the entire album. It has another very busy instrumental with the percussion in particular being a big favorite of mine. As the song goes on the jittery guitar riff gets even more intense and I totally adore it. Ollie seems to be slowly losing his mind perfectly in time with the music and after an ominous bridge the track gets right back to rocking. Global Groove is the slowest developing song here and it really takes it time during the spacious intro. Even once the vocals kicks in around 90 seconds into the track the instrumental doesn't cram the mix in the same way it does on some other tracks here. This makes it one of the more menacing moments as Ollie calls out lyrics like "Watch your favorite war on TV" and being "Sick and tired of dancing." The song maintains this energy even on the back end with a long instrumental outro featuring some obscured spoken word vocals that are admittedly adding to its unsettling nature. 

Documentary Filmmaker has a really cool instrumentation with a circular key and horn cycle that keeps the track spinning methodically. I will say this is the one track whose lull in energy sort of gets to me maybe because of how much I like the first half of it. The back end is a very dreary and slow paced fade out that isn't necessarily dominated by any one sound or characteristic. 2010 starts off like a lot of the other songs here but pretty much out of nowhere it erupts into a harsh explosion of sound with metallic tones and heavy distortion. As attention grabbing as it is I'm not really pulled out of the song by it even once it settles back down into its core sound. I'm impressed by the creativity but even the song itself isn't one of my favorite here. 

Squid are probably going to be talked about alongside, and compared to their contemporaries in Black Country New Road and Black Midi for quite a long time. Thankfully on Bright Green Field Squid confirmed that they absolutely belong among the top ranks of modern British post-punk with a strikingly creative and unwaveringly intense debut album. The snarling punk vocals mesh perfectly with the brash instrumentation which refuses to settle throughout the records runtime. The album is creative, unique and ultimately a lot of fun and I can't think of anything more you need to prove yourselves as the future of experimental rock. 8/10 

Album Cover Review By Tyler Judson:

This cover is pretty cool. The composition is simple and there's nothing else in the cover besides the subject. The concept is nice and executed well to make a minimal piece of art. The quality doesn't seem very high and there could be some branding in t e empty surrounding space. It does the job but I'm not excited by it. 5/10

For more post-punk check out my review of Black Country, New Road's For The First Time here