Squid

English art-rock quintet Squid’s new album Cowards, out 7th February 2025 via Warp Records, is about evil. Nine stories whose protagonists reckon with cults, charisma and apathy. Real and imagined characters wading into the dark ocean between right and wrong.

Late last year, Squid returned with their lead single “Crispy Skin” which The Fader described as “a surprisingly breezy song about cannibalism and moral cowardice” and The Observer said was “a creepily enjoyable effort”. It is followed today by the band’s most immediate, dynamic and colourful track to date, “Building 650”. Squid dissolve in a haze of light and colour. Sharp outlines begin to blur in relentless motion as intricately beautiful layers forge and bend in symphony.

Ollie Judge on the single.“It’s a song inspired by our first ever trip to Japan. We played the Summersonic festival in 2022, luckily we were booked to play 2 days after the COVID travel ban had been lifted, because of this we felt like some of the only tourists in Tokyo. On the plane I read in the Miso Soup by Ryu Murikami and watched Lost in Translation out of excitement and later decided to write lyrics about being an outsider visiting Japan, including a very particular type of loneliness one can feel visiting a country that is so different from their own. This loneliness feels exaggerated in Tokyo, on the surface it’s hectic and full of people but when you listen, it’s eerily quiet.”

“Building 650” arrives with a video directed by longtime collaborator Felix Geen who shot the video in Japan alongside local directors Daisuke Hasegawa and Kuya Tatsujo. “For this script, I believed it was necessary to incorporate not only inspiration from the novel (In The Miso Soup) but also scenes from contemporary Japan,” says Kuya. “The wave of technology is overwhelming, and an intense sense of fear, driven by the need to interact with others, envelops the city. Amidst this, I think I was able to depict the young people struggling to live and the landscape of the city.”

Geen elaborates: “I feel that the whole video came together very nicely with the human touch added by Daisuke and Kuya. I got to have my fun with the expansive and deconstructed city shots, and it was all brought back down to earth and grounded by the raw and natural 8mm film work from them.”

On their third album, Squid extend and explore textures of folk, kosmische, psychedelia, jazz and electronics – hovering at 30,000 feet above distinct tales of human evil: apophenia-tinged songs punched by vantablack comedy.

The band recorded Cowards at Church Studios in Crouch End with Mercury prize winning producers Marta Salogni and Grace Banks. On additional production is longtime shifu and collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums. The record was mixed in Seattle by John McEntire, before being compressed by the rich analogue chain of Heba Kadry’s mastering in Brooklyn, New York. For additional voice and instruments, Squid called on distinguished friends and musicians: Danish experimental songsmith Clarissa Connelly, composer, pianist and singer Tony Njoku, Rosa Brook from punk group Pozi, percussion wizard Zands Duggan, and Jonny Greenwood collaborators the Ruisi Quartet for violin, viola and cello. The range of sound allowed Squid to push out further, writing arrangements that build into crescendo before sheer-drops into discrete melody. Fleeting voices in eerie rounds evoke prehistoric song and nursery rhyme.

Following a SOLD-OUT NYC underplay show to celebrate the announcement of Cowards, Squid have released details of headline UK and EU tours starting in February.

Cowards will be available on black and clear vinyl, CD and cassette. There will also be a limited deluxe edition vinyl - including a 10” with bonus material and poster only available from independent retailers and Squid’s website.