Squid preview debut album with second single "Paddling"

After announcing Bright Green Field with Martha Skye Murphy collaboration "Narrator" back in January, Squid have returned with their punchy new track "Paddling".

The band say of the new track, "Written from two different perspectives, "Paddling" is a song about the dichotomy between simple pleasures and decadent consumerism. Recounting a familiar scene from Wind in the Willows, the song reminds us that although we are humans, we are ultimately animals that are driven by both modern and primal instincts, leading to vanity and machismo around us in the everyday."

The band's debut album, produced by Dan Carey, will include field recordings of ringing church bells, bees, microphones swinging from the ceiling in a room of guitar amps, a distorted choir of 30 voices, and a horn and string ensemble featuring Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from Black Country, New Road.

Lead vocalist and drummer Ollie Judge says, "This album has created an imaginary cityscape. The tracks illustrate the places, events and architecture that exist within it. Previous projects were playful and concerned with characters, whereas this project is darker and more concerned with place - the emotional depth of the music has deepened."

He adds, "Reading Douglas Coupland’s view that we’re living in the "Extreme Present" as well as Mark Fisher and Merlin Coverley’s writings on Hauntology and the slow cancellation of the future made me realise we’ve been living in a dystopian and futurist landscape for a long time."