Description
Teeming with melodic epiphanies and layered sounds, Squid?s second album O Monolith is a
musical evocation of environment, domesticity and self-made folklore. Like its predecessor,
2021?s critically acclaimed, UK number 4 album Bright Green Field, it is dense and tricksy ? but
also more warm and characterful, with a meandering, questioning nature. ?I think we?ve been
able to have a lot more fun this time,? says guitarist Anton Pearson of the change between Bright
Green Field and O Monolith. ?We wanted to embrace those slightly funny moments, where you
establish a tone then free-fall into another sonic world, which is something we always do when
we?re making music together.? A sense of open conversation is cultivated: this is unmistakably
music made by friends, but it?s not exclusionary ? they?re inviting you in to listen with them.
Expansive, evocative and hugely varied, O Monolith retains Squid?s restless, enigmatic spirit,
but it still holds surprises for those familiar with Bright Green Field. It?s a reflection of the
outsized progression of a band always looking to the future. ?Every record we do is a snapshot
of where we?re at,? Ollie concludes. ?We?re quite a musically stubborn band, and in an endearing
way it?s a stubborn record. It requires quite a lot of attentive listening.? Like its namesake, O
Monolith is vast and strange; alive with endless possible interpretations of its inner mysteries.
