Squid Announce New Album 'Cowards'

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London post-punk quintet Squid have announced their third album, Cowards, due out February 7 of next year via Warp Records, with the release of its lead single “Crispy Skin” this afternoon. After a tumultuous season—which saw the cancellation of their Asia tour due to a serious accident in September—the innovative group have marked their triumphant return with a high-powered, twinkly spiral into paranoia.

Vocalist Ollie Judge was inspired to write “Crispy Skin” after reading Tender is the Flesh, a New-Age dystopian novel by Argentinian author Agustina Bazterrica, where cannibalism becomes the norm and humans become capital. “The track was written about how the reality of having a moral compass in these stories of desperation and horror would be extremely difficult,” he says. “If I was actually in that world, I probably would be the coward.”

“Crispy Skin” sees these fears come into light, through Squid’s trademark piling basslines meeting with sporadic synths and escalating pianos, creating a heavy and masterfully dilapidated atmosphere. The accompanying video, an adaptation of Japanese filmmaker Takashi Ito’s 1995 short film Zone, adds to the unease with flashing scenes and explosive delusions of “a man without a face.”

Cowards is Squid’s third album, a follow-up to their 2023 LP O Monolith. Recently, we named Bright Green Field one of the 25 best debut albums of the 2020s so far. Squid will be previewing new music from Cowards at a sold-out show at New York City’s Drom tonight. Listen to “Crispy Skin” below.

Squid Announce New Album Cowards

The London quintet's third LP is set to arrive on 2/7 via Warp Records.