Since the shooting star that was their 2021 debut, Squid has been hellbent on changing rock music standards. Their first two albums established them as art-rock-connoisseurs, morphing the rules of the genre until they were left in unrecognizable, melodic heaps. The five-piece thrives in the unconventional, but their unrelenting trust in each other is where they truly shine. Squid has moved frantically yet purposefully, navigating their newfound spotlight with apparent ease. Still, the time has come for what could be the most daunting question you could ask a recently successful band: What’s next? The answer, for Squid, is Cowards. The band’s third album arrives via Warp Records this Friday (February 7). The 9-song LP features blissful post-punk with tinges of soul, showcasing a more honed, mature side of Squid.
Cowards was completed when the band released their 2023 LP, O Monolith, just before they started touring the record. Many young bands have found a slither of recognition and fallen entirely off the rails, opting to write about their newfound glamorous lifestyle. Cowards is not your typical post-rock-stardom album. The band writes with empathy, an egoless effort that delivers a refreshing perspective. Despite their calm demeanor in these songs, Squid is still very much art rock, opting for left-field tones and otherworldly song structure to introduce fans to this new side of a band that built their following on unpredictability. Cowards doesn’t lack experimentation; it simply approaches it in a new light.
That light hits Squid like a prism, bouncing off the band in different flurries of rainbow hues. Cowards is less about the band’s oddball approach to production, although there are plenty of examples here and more about their songwriting. Cowards has an air of mythology, forcing listeners to fall in love with the characters detailed in these songs as Squid paints vivid imagery over jagged production. “Blood On The Boulders” explores the drug crisis and the aftermath of a life of addiction with a tint of morbid curiosity. At the same time, the swelling epic “Fieldworks II” appears to be a wartime narrative about regret and living with it. Therein lies what makes Cowards such a complex effort. These enthralling storytelling tunes play like a collection of short stories tied together by the author’s undeniable individuality and ability to approach sensitive, heartbreaking topics with care and grace.
Cowards is an album that takes multiple close listens to unearth the nuances of Squid’s third outing. While the songwriting steals the show, what the band is doing sonically is equally head-spinning. Moments like “Showtime!” have the band employing touches of surf-rock while implementing the eerie strings that act as an anchor throughout the band’s lofty LP. “Fieldworks I” features ethereal psychedelia that builds into an epic crescendo. The only way to accent this type of songwriting is with pure cinema, and Squid achieved that with humble ease. Cowards finds the band capturing small moments and stretching them to their furthest limits, allowing for a simplistic-sounding LP with the truth that it is anything but.
Squid has a lot of eyes on them entering their third LP, Cowards, although the album would suggest the opposite. Cowards has the band at their most focused and free, taking a daring direction that ultimately fits within the expansive sonic universe the band built for themselves. Rather than constructing an entirely new planet to add to the Squid universe, the band picks through the worlds they have already built and discovers the minute details that make Squid one of the more exciting bands to emerge in recent years. Squid’s new album proves they are far from done evolving, and this current evolutionary state has the band creating musical short films with spellbinding stories built on the band’s vision of a more connected world.
