From the first note of Squid’s latest LP, you can tell post-punk’s newest golden child is taking its distinct stylings to a whole new level. While the genre they call home has seen a recent resurgence across the board, Squid has never fit into the convention. The band came crashing onto the scene with their cartoonishly impressive 2021 debut Bright Green Field, which was met with nothing but positive reactions upon its release. The band’s expansive and colorful soundscapes scoffed at complacency and opted for extended arrangements that build on themselves only to explode in a stunningly thrashing style that had placed Squid on a throne all to its own.
O Monolith marks the band’s return although this latest outing sees them approach their typical style with a sense of maturity and freedom. For eight off-kilter tracks, Squid indulges in their wildest musical fantasies to craft an album that pushes their creativity to new heights through a flurry of whimsical distortion and melodic chaos.
O Monolith attacks the age-old debate of nature versus nurture. The band entered their sophomore album through a crossroad, to continue their onslaught of heaven-sent post-punk from their debut or to take a sharp left and redefine themselves. Miraculously, Squid achieved both. The album finds the band venturing into a new sonic direction while still leaving a trail of expert drum pockets and slick guitar rhythms that hint at their previous work. This marriage hits a peak on the single “The Blades”. The arrangement features a series of bleeps from a stuttering electronic drum pattern that harmonizes with high-frequency guitar chords, creating a texture that feels new and old at the same time. The band saw their new-found fame as a means to freely express themselves rather than a bar to measure their new music, giving O Monolith its unique beauty.
What is more impressive is how Squid achieved such consistency while exploring new areas. The album bounces around styles in a seamless manner, combining the band’s ambitions with their natural sense of songcraft. They combined new elements like the woodwind instruments that elevate the magic of a song like “Devil’s Den” with their groovy walls of sound like the one executed on “Undergrowth”. The way the band pieced together the tracklist for O Monolith is a masterclass in experimentation, allowing fans to be baffled by the sonic leaps while still playing as a well throughout exploration into Squid’s ceilingless creativity.
There is a sense of maturity in the moodiness of the album. The band used their sophomore effort to level their chaos, containing their melodies to a more monotone and melancholic delivery. The album is as ambitious vocally as it is sonically with frontman Ollie Judge breaking out of his shell a little more. His robotic melodies on the slow-burning “Siphon Song” add a layer of intimacy to the song’s bleak lyrics. You hear the pessimism that drives the album in his whispered baritone on “After The Flash”, a song that also uses ambiance in a way Squid is new to. You hear the vocals reach the opposite end of the spectrum on the final two songs of the album. “Green Light” filters its vocals through a kaleidoscope and spits out an elastic melody that only begins to scratch the surface of Judge’s range while the album’s outro, “If You Had Seen The Bull’s Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away”, uses its vocals to build on the instrumental rather than guide it.
If Squid made anything clear with their sophomore album, it’s their ambitions as a band. O Monolith introduces us to a band that is hellbent on pushing boundaries and exploring their wildest musical curiosities to the fullest extent, allowing the outcome to speak for itself. That outcome is eight mind-bending songs that pull you in through cosmic melodies that manifest in artsy rock that hits as hard as the head-pounding music we usually associate with post-punk. The band found the perfect balance of what they know and what they hope to become, making O Monolith a considered sophomore effort that proves Squid’s placement as one of the most exciting bands in years.
