Squid is returning with their latest album, Cowards, set to release on February 7, 2025, through Warp.
The music video for “Crispy Skin” takes inspiration from Takashi Ito’s 1995 short film Zone. The album features contributions from various artists like Clarissa Connelly, Tony Njoku, Rosa Brook from Pozi, percussionist Zands Duggan, and the Ruisi Quartet. Marta Salogni and Grace Banks worked alongside the band and Dan Carey to produce this LP. Before starting their European tour—dates listed below—Squid will perform at a sold-out show in New York tonight.
Ollie Judge shared that “Crispy Skin” was influenced by a dystopian novel called Tender Is The Flesh, where cannibalism becomes normal and humans are sold like groceries. He said people often imagine themselves choosing the moral path in such stories but admitted it would be tough to maintain one’s ethics in those situations. “If I was actually in that world,” he confessed, “I probably would be the coward in this instance.”
Takashi Ito described his video as portraying a faceless man tied up with ropes who remains motionless in a white room. This character represents wild fantasies and even parts of himself. Through strange scenes within this room, he explores memories mingled with nightmares and violent imagery.
Sometimes fans wonder what they would do if faced with such strange worlds.
Cowards tracklist:
- 01 Crispy Skin
- 02 Building 650
- 03 Blood on the Boulders
- 04 Fieldworks I
- 05 Fieldworks II
- 06 Cro-Magnon Man
- 07 Cowards
- 08 Showtime!
- 09 Well Met (Fingers Through the Fence)
Their tour schedule includes:
- 11-12 New York, NY – Drom
- 02-17 Liverpool, England – Invisible Wind Factory
- 02-18 Manchester, England – O2 Ritz Manchester
- 02-19 Glasgow, Scotland – Old Fruitmarket
- 02-21 Newcastle, England – NSU Domain
- (…and many more!)
