It happens so rarely these days - I'm minding my own business, listening to the radio, and something comes on and makes me sit up and go 'wow!'
Thus it was one Saturday in Autumn 2019 when Mark Radcliffe played Squid's Match Bet on his programme, and I sought out what I could find by the band - which was almost nothing.
So, this debut album was eagerly awaited and ordered from the record company to be sent to me on release. As an additional bonus, in June 2021, Squid played a socially distanced gig (grouped seats, no moving around, bring your own booze) at a community centre in nearby Cliftonville, my first post-lockdown gig, and a wonderfully surreal evening.
Opening with Resolution Square, 40 seconds of industrial drone, we're quickly into GSK, and Squid's idiosyncratic sound, a combination of singer/drummer Ollie Judge's shouty vocals, a funky beat, heavy with trumpets and electronica, just fantastic. Next comes single, Narrator, initially more straightforward, but ending in a cacophony of screams from guest Martha Skye Murphy, and to my ears, outstaying its welcome a little - certainly one of the album's weaker songs. Boy Racers is brighter, its sung section melting into a dreamy drone, which becomes siren like to its conclusion, while the next single, Paddling, has the vocals shared by Louis Borlase and Anton Pearson, whose gentler delivery contrasts with Judge's shout-singing, in a well constructed, fast moving song. Then it's down a notch on the volume, and a minimal arrangement with the brass motif running into Documentary Filmmaker, and a quieter spoken section still subtly driven by Laurie Nankivell's cornet. 2010 flows along on a simple guitar theme, gently sung over repeated spoken phrases, pausing occasionally for some high decibel mayhem, before the calm returns, into the discordant but lovely short brass break of The Flyover, then an electronic beat ushers in the angry Peel St. As we approach the climax, there's time for the slow, pounding beat of Global Groove, Judge still shouting over a smooth brass theme, before the final song, the frantic, fast paced Pamphlets.
It's an album that was certainly as good as I'd hoped. While not everything Squid try works completely, the fact that they're not scared to try different sounds and approaches is exciting, and far more ideas do come off than don't. They're the most exciting new band I've heard in at least 20 years, and I do hope there's lots more to come.
4* - a fantastic debut album, and I'm already awaiting the next one impatiently.
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