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CRITIC REVIEWS
100
Curious and capricious, Squid know how to grab your interest and to keep it, deftly remaining unsettling and reaching for the unexpected, and always leaving enough room to dance.
100
Bright Green Field is nothing short of immaculate. On the surface it seems like organised chaos, but as you listen it reveals itself to be so much more.
100
An uncompromising debut that fulfils every ounce of the band’s potential.
90
The music is busy, but rarely familiar, and certainly stimulating. Truly a band for the times, Squid feels like a wild jumble of thoughts come to life, effusing anger, confusion, humor, detachment, and even joyfulness in their pursuit of true creative freedom.
90
With the release of their debut album Bright Green Field, Squid reject the limits of genre, turning experimentalism on its head and completely redefining what it means to be a band in 2021.
90
Squid proves on their very first try that they have the cajones to make big changes to the way we think about music ... Bright Green Field is already an album rife with the qualities of a classic.
90
Succinct yet packed with stunning detail, it refuses to take the easy way out, and that stubbornness may see Squid outstrip their peers in a head-long race towards a re-engaged future.
90
A bold debut that continues their frenetic exploration of post-punk kraut-jazz but also moves into more electronic and soundscape-like worlds.
90
Squid always seemed destined to have an epic album in them, and they’ve delivered just that.
90
An entirely dynamic free flow that manages to satisfy a disparate, yet tightly cohesive tracklist. Even to a point where songs converse independently amongst themselves.
90
Squid accomplishes an impressive feat of ambition with Bright Green Field, pushing past genre confines to craft something singular, thoughtful, and captivating.
90
Here, they embrace vulnerability, taking time to address modern issues (read: symptoms of capitalism), while also imbuing a real sense of fun, artistic merit and instrumental democracy in the record's 11 tracks.
85
Like (almost) nothing you’ll hear this year, Bright Green Field is a remarkable and unabashedly strange debut for Squid, one that is as perplexing as it is addicting. The only thing more addicting is trying to describe them to your friends.
85
Bright Green Field is a masterful work, knowing when to wear its influences proudly and when to veer off wildly into its own lane.
83
The innovative sonic mayhem of their music is both an acknowledgement of the despair of our existence – and a reminder that nobody is alone in feeling it.
80
They challenge and toy with their audience, an approach that will win friends and enemies alike. Their ‘Bright Green Field’ is yours for the pillaging: it’s up to you to seek out any treasure within its acres.
80
There’s reassurance to be gleaned from that spirit of examination, and from the accompanying music’s audacity ... Their ambitious record is, in itself, an absolute tonic.
80
Originating as a quintet schooled in modal jazz, Squid’s transformation into post-punk disruptors is indicative of a band that relentlessly bucks against their limits. To hear them ply their craft on Bright Green Field, the album represents a crystallization of that impulse.
80
Songs feel perpetually on the brink of collapse as the band lock into Krautrock grooves, only for them to fall apart, leaving Dan Carey’s watertight production to hold it all together.
80
The English band’s nervy debut blazes through scraps of jazz, funk, krautrock, dub, and punk. More than a canonized style, it’s their level of control that sets them apart.
80
The British quintet’s utter disregard for rock convention elevates Bright Green Field’s paranoid, vaguely dystopian universe.
80
It is evident from Bright Green Field that Squid are not about an egotistical frontman but a rare and promising artistic cohesion where talented musicians complement each other’s ideas.
80
It’s a little pretentious, and definitely an album that requires your full attention, but it’s a deceptively good time too.
80
It makes for a challenging first listen – deliberately so, you’d guess – but there are real rewards for those who take the time to unravel this cacophony ... This is proudly shape-shifting, genre-defying music.
80
Squid’s fictional municipality is an extraordinary place to spend your time and one that encourages repeated visits.
70
Some of its ideas do get a little stale, but all in all Bright Green Field is an ambitious and very promising debut album.
60
Though nothing here is truly experimental or innovative – it’s more the kind of music that gets labelled as such because of the influences it shows – Bright Green Field has a hurtling energy, each song shifting restlessly, repeatedly in style and pace.
60
If Squid are the guitar boys' buzz band of the moment, some are going to get a little more than they bargained for on their debut LP.
Crackheads running rampant in England streets, mental wards overflowing with patients, the grassy pastures of rural Britain. Squid’s jazzy post-punk revival opus, the eclectically apocalyptic ‘Bright Green Fields’, attempts to tackle the un-urbanized section of their homeland, a massive 90+% of England that goes oblivious to outsiders, stepping into the shoes of those who live past the picture-perfect facade portraying England as nothing but sunny green fields and stunning ... read more
There's not even a FUCKING sea creature on this cover OR IN ANY OF THE SONG, LET ALONE ANY SQUID!? WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I PAY YOU FOR????????????
To say that there are before and after Bright Green Field is perhaps a little too hasty, yet the Brighton natives have offered us an absolutely brilliant experience from start to finish that will be remembered for years to come. They knew how to revisit through the anguish of the world, with the help of a modern signature absolutely personal
For two years now, the underground scene in the United Kingdom has been rising up among the most promising, as the standard of the future. Among the ... read more
Recommended to me by @Bobby back when I first made my account. Sorry I took so long to review this.
Squid is apparently a part of the “Windmill Scene” because they have shows at a pub called the Windmill. BCNR and Black Midi are also part of the Windmill Scene, so I had hopes for this project.
While BCNR and Black Midi have wildly different sounds, Squid sounds like a bit of both. They have similar instrumentation to BCNR, but edge towards the darker sounds and themes of Black ... read more
How the fuck have i not heard this sooner? This album is right up my alley. Fucking amazing atmosphere, perfomance on all fronts and boundary pushing aswell.
FAV TRACKS: G.S.K, Narrator, Boy Racers, Paddling, Documentary Filmmaker, 2010, Peel, St., Global Groove, Pamphlets
LEAST FAV TRACK: None
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Track List
| 1 | Resolution Square 0:40 | 65 |
| 2 | G.S.K. 3:10 | 89 |
| 3 | Narrator 8:28 with Martha Skye Murphy | 93 |
| 4 | Boy Racers 7:34 | 82 |
| 5 | Paddling 6:17 | 87 |
| 6 | Documentary Filmmaker 4:55 | 78 |
| 7 | 2010 4:28 | 83 |
| 8 | The Flyover 1:10 | 73 |
| 9 | Peel St. 4:52 | 84 |
| 10 | Global Groove 5:07 | 83 |
| 11 | Pamphlets 8:03 | 89 |
Total Length: 54 minutes
Year End Lists
| #1 | / | Les Inrocks |
| #2 | / | Bleep |
| #2 | / | MondoSonoro |
| #2 | / | Spectrum Culture |
| #3 | / | Far Out Magazine |
| #6 | / | Rough Trade (UK) |
| #8 | / | The Skinny |
| #9 | / | Crack Magazine |
| #9 | / | NBHAP |
| #10 | / | DIY |
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2w
used to think it was bloated but slowly began to dig every song. and, imo, it seems like o monolith will be even better
Added on: January 27, 2021