Squid will release their new LP Cowards, available February 7th via Warp Records. Ahead of the album’s arrival, the UK band have shared lead single “Crispy Skin.” The quintet includes Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson. Cowards is the follow up to 2021’s Bright Green Field and O Monolith. Tonight, Squid play a sold-out show in New York City where they’ll perform songs from Cowards for the first time. Shortly after the album’s release, they will embark on a UK and EU headline tour.

“”Crispy Skin” was lyrically inspired by a dystopian novel Tender Is The Flesh I read where cannibalism becomes the societal norm and humans are manufactured and sold in supermarkets. I think when most people read books like these they picture themselves as the sort of person that would take the moral high-ground within these narratives. The track was written about how the reality of having a moral-compass in these stories of desperation and horror would be extremely difficult.” Judge continues and admits, “if I was actually in that world, I probably would be the coward in this instance.”

The accompanying video, directed by Takashi Ito, is an adaptation of his award-winning experimental 1995 short film Zone. Ito explains: “A film about a man without a face. His arms and legs bound with ropes, still without even a quiver in a white room. This man, enwrapped in wild delusions, is also a reconstruction of myself. A series of unusual scenes in this room that expresses what lies inside me. I tried to create a connection between memories, nightmares and violent images.”

On the new album: Borlase states, “We were thinking of an album of great songwriting. Simple ideas that resonate in a very different way to O Monolith, which was dense and complex.” Judge adds: “Touring fed into this record in a way that I didn’t initially realize. Every song has a specific place anchored to it, places that all five of us have visited together, like New York, Tokyo, and Eastern Europe.”

For additional voice and instruments, Squid called on distinguished friends and musicians: Danish experimental songsmith Clarissa Connelly, composer, pianist and singer Tony Njoku, Rosa Brook from punk group Pozi, percussion wizard Zands Duggan, and Jonny Greenwood collaborators the Ruisi Quartet for violin, viola and cello.

The band recorded Cowards at Church Studios in Crouch End with producer Marta Salogni and Grace Banks, with additional production by longtime collaborator Dan Carey, who recorded the band’s first two albums. The record was mixed by John McEntire (Tortoise) before being mastered by Heba Kadry.

Squid
Cowards
Tracklist
Warp

1. Crispy Skin
2. Building 650
3. Blood on the Boulders
4. Fieldworks I
5. Fieldworks II
6. Cro-Magnon Man
7. Cowards
8. Showtime!
9. Well Met (Fingers Through The Fence)

Squid 2025 Tour Dates

Mon. Feb. 17 – Liverpool, UK @ Invisible Wind Factory
Tue. Feb. 18 – Manchester, UK @ O2 Ritz Manchester
Wed. Feb. 19 – Glasgow, UK @ Old Fruitmarket
Fri. Feb. 21 – Newcastle, UK @ NSU Domain
Sat. Feb. 22 – Sheffield, UK @ Leadmill
Mon. Feb 24 – Cambridge, UK @ Junction 1
Tue. Feb 25 – Norwich, UK @ The Adrian Flux Waterfront
Thu. Feb. 27 – Oxford, UK @ O2 Academy Oxford
Fri. Feb. 28 – Southampton, UK @ Engine Rooms
Sat. March 1 – Margate, UK @ Lido
Sun. March 2 – Brighton, UK @ Chalk
Tue. March 4 – Birmingham, UK @ XOYO
Wed. March 5 – Bristol, UK @ Bristol Beacon
Wed. April 9 – Paris, FR @ Cabaret Sauvage
Thu. April 10 – Cologne, DE @ Club Volta
Fri. April 11 – Dresden, DE @ Polimagie Festival
Sat. April 12 – Berlin, DE @ Lido
Mon. April 14 – Schorndorf, DE @ Manufaktur
Tue. April 15 – Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg
Wed. April 16 – Antwerp, BE @ Trix
Fri. April 18 – Rotterdam, NL @ Motel Mozaique Festival
Sat. April 19 – Nijmegen, NL @ Doornroosje
Sat. April 26 – London, UK @ Roundhouse

Pre-order Cowards by Squid HERE