Squid, Paddling
Warp Records
Current post-punk’s favourite sonic oddballs are back with another tune that’s just as mind-bending as everything they’ve released so far. Squid, ahead of their hotly anticipated debut album Bright Green Field, have just shared second single Paddling, and it’s as dizzying as you’d expect. Squid’s upwards trajectory has been fast-growing, with a handful of singles peppering 2020 to gear the world up for their darkly polished sound, and now as we veer ever closer to Bright Green Field, Squid are asserting the fact that they are a creative force to be absolutely reckoned with.
As with lead single Narrator, Squid have released the full six-minute Paddling alongside a shortened edit, but they needn’t have bothered – there’s not a second of the song that’s not completely, intensely necessary. It’s a comprehension-defying melee of jagged, piercing guitar melodies, instrumentals leapfrogging between 80s fuzz and contemporary art-pop with a side order of Joy Division-esque bass rearing its head every now and then. The deliciously discordant minutiae of Paddling, as shown on Narrator (and in every Squid song; it’s somewhat a calling card), are both freely interwoven and precisely constructed in relation to one another, simultaneously an impenetrable wall of noise and a jigsaw puzzle begging to be dissected.
Lead vocalist Ollie Judge delivers the enchantingly – and disconcertingly – sharp lyrics with all the talk-singing flair you’d expect from someone managing to deconstruct consumerism via a scene from The Wind In the Willows. The range of Squid’s commentary, and the influences they draw on to make this commentary, is formidable, and definitely sets up Bright Green Field to be as intriguing a listening experience as it is guaranteed to be a set of truly astounding tunes.
Bright Green Field is out May 7th.
Squid have also announced a string of tour dates for the autumn! Grab tickets here.
