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7/10
Nobody’s asking for sympathy here, but a quick pan of some of the other pieces about Bright Green Field reveal a common problem.
At one level it’s quite easy to describe, lending itself comfortably to the sort of dense, metaphor-heavy appraisals which feel a bit like critical onanism, but what’s equally true is that you have to be an accomplice, a significant other, at its table, because without that there’s simply no way to embrace it in a meaningful way.
Nearly always experimental and in places chaotic, Squid have made a record with which it’s impossible to have a casual relationship.
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The word âislandâ is usually synonymous with âparadiseââsomeplace tropical and warm, skewered by beach umbrellas. Weâre less likely to think of Alcatraz. But when English rock band Squid mention a âconcrete islandâ in the first minutes of
Bright Green Field, itâs closer to the infamous prison than a Sandals resort. The isle in âG.S.K.â is a dystopian slab ruled by Big Pharma, and the recordâs opening scene, as shouted by drummer and vocalist Ollie Judge, confines us to this grim locale: âAs the sun sets, on the Glaxo Klein/Well itâs the only way that I can tell the time,â he sings. On this barren rock, the British drug conglomerate is the towering center of daily lifeâso big, it acts like a sundial. âIslandâ never sounded so angry or claustrophobic.
Squid - Bright Green Field (Album Review) Tuesday, 11 May 2021
Photo: Holly Whitaker
Squid are part of a wave of British bands alongside such outfits as Black Midi and Black Country, New Road who have a number of tags swirling above their heads, from post-punk to post-rock. Yet, and this is crucial, their music mostly does away with anything approximating a pigeonhole related to genre.
However, one thing that unites these bands is their emergence around the time of Brexit. As a result, they represent a frustrated and fatigued part of society, disillusioned with government policy and finding reasons for optimism hard to come by.