Squid
photo by StudioUJ

Squid announce new LP 'O Monolith,' share single "Swing (In A Dream)"

UK band Squid have announced their sophomore album, O Monolith, due out on June 9 via Warp. It follows their 2021 debut Bright Green Field, and was largely conceptualized and written on tour after the debut release. “Without that tour we wouldn’t have any of these tracks,” bandmate Ollie Judge says. “People were so looking forward to seeing live music that we thought we could just play anything, even if it was unfinished. In some form or another we played about 80% of O Monolith, mostly without lyrics.”

O Monolith was recorded at Peter Gabriel’s Real World studios, produced by longtime collaborator Dan Carey, and mixed by Tortoise’s John McEntire. Also featured on the album are Martha Skye Murphy (who appeared on Bright Green Field, as well) and Roger Bolton. Bandmate Louis Borlase says, “There’s a running theme of the relation of people to the environment throughout. There are allusions to the world we became so immersed in, environmental emergency, the role of domesticity, and the displacement you feel when you’re away for a long time.” Check out the artwork and tracklist for O Monolith below.

The first taste of O Monolith comes from single and album opener “Swing (In A Dream),” an instrumentally expansive jam that foregrounds polished brass and distorted guitars in equal measure. The lyrics are based on a dream Judge had about classic Rococo painting “The Swing” by Jean-Honoré Fragonard: “In my dream, I was in the painting but it was flooded and everything was floating away,” he says. The chaos is palpable in the song’s fluctuating synths and drums. Listen to “Swing (In A Dream)” below.

Squid will be on tour in the UK and Europe in the summer and fall. All dates below.

Squid, O Monolith

O Monolith Tracklist
1. Swing (In A Dream)
2. Devil’s Den
3. Siphon Song
4. Undergrowth
5. The Blades
6. After The Flash
7. Green Light
8. If You Had Seen The Bull’s Swimming Attempts You Would Have Stayed Away

Squid — 2023 Tour Dates
Fri. May 5 – Wrexhman, WS @ Focus Wales
Sun. June 18 – Wicklow, IE @ Beyond The Pale
Fri. June 30 – Werchter, BE @ Rock Werchter
Sun. July 2 – Lars, DE @ Fusion
Fri. July 21 – Hertfordshire, UK @ Standon Calling
Sat. July 22 – Oxfordshire, UK @ Truck Festival
Wed. Aug. 16 – Portugal, ES @ Paredes De Coura
Fri. Aug. 18 – Brecon, WS @ Green Man
Sat. Sep. 2 – Vlieland, NL @ Into The Great Wide Open
Fri. Oct. 13 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Sat. Oct. 14 – Bristol, UK @ SWX
Mon. Oct. 16 – Birmingham, UK @ Town Hall
Tue. Oct. 17 – Leeds, UK @ O2 Academy Leeds
Thu. Oct. 19 – Manchester, UK @ New Century
Sat. Oct. 21 – Glasgow, UK @ Barrowland Ballroom
Sun. Oct. 22 – Newcastle, UK @ Boiler Shop
Wed. Nov. 1 – London, UK @ Troxy