Squid - O Monolith

If debut ‘Bright Green Field’ offered the quintessence of spiky, angst-ridden urban paranoia, Squid’s second outing ‘O Monolith’ escapes into the freshness of countryside air and vents all its frustration there instead. Reunited with Dan Carey’s production talents - and John McIntyre of post-rock legends Tortoise handling the mix - the quintet upped sticks to Peter Gabriel’s Real World Wiltshire studios and dutifully embraced all its natural wonders. Accordingly, this latest hare-brained scheme is imbued with an otherworldly folk cultishness, with group chants and woodwind figures adding pastoral flair. Song titles come imbued with occultic associations - ‘Devil’s Den’, ’Green Light’, ‘Undergrowth; indeed, the tortured refrain of the latter (“Undergrowth, consume me”) might act as the LP’s slogan. Adding to this air of intimacy and exposure, vocalist Ollie Judge shifts away from the eye-boggling yelps that made the band their name, singing instead with pained melodic yearning. While, at its core, ‘O Monolith’ retains that signature post-punk flex - guitars interlocking in askew time signatures like the workings of a Swiss watch - everything here has been given room to expand, songs drifting from dreamy ascension to full-blown rock revelation and back again. An album of immense power and conviction.