For a few years now, Squid have been building up hype as one of the more frazzled, bug-eyed acts amongst a new generation of guitar bands coming out of the UK and Ireland. We named them one of the best new bands in 2019 on the strength of their EP Town Centre, and the standalone singles have been just as exciting. Now the moment’s finally here: Squid’s debut LP is on the horizon. It’s called Bright Green Field, and it’ll be out in May.

The album was produced by Dan Carey, and it seems to feature a whole bunch of experimental stuff and textural details woven in with Squid’s trademark frazzled art-rock: found field recordings, distorted choirs, string and horn ensembles, the latter of which including Emma-Jean Thackray and Lewis Evans from fellow English avant-rockers Black Country, New Road.

Along with the announcement, the band have shared an epic eight-minute lead single called “Narrator.” It features Martha Skye Murphy, initially providing a calmer counterpoint to Oliver Judge’s frenzied bleat, until the song’s intense, scream-ridden finale. Here’s what the band had to say about the song:

“Narrator” was inspired by the 2019 film A Long Day’s Journey Into Night. The song follows a man who is losing the distinction between memory, dream, and reality, and how you can often mold your memories of people to fit a narrative that benefits your ego. Martha Skye-Murphy made the point that the unreliable narrator is, more often than not, a male who wishes to portray women as submissive characters in their story. After some discussions with Martha she thought it’d be a good idea that she play the part of the woman wanting to break free from the dominating story the male has set​.

“Narrator” also comes with a video directed by Felix Green. “​I had wanted to make a video about the virtual creation process for some time,” Green said in a statement. “I often think this ‘behind the digital curtain’ part of 3D design looks more interesting than the final finished product since it conveys a process and an authorship. ​When I was approached to pitch on ‘Narrator’ I immediately thought it could be the perfect match for this very visual idea.” Check it out below.

01 “Resolution Square”
02 “G.S.K.”
03 “Narrator”
04 “Boy Racers”
05 “Paddling”
06 “Documentary Filmmaker”
07 “2010”
08 “The Flyover”
09 “Peel St”
10 “Global Groove”
11 “Pamphlets”

Bright Green Field is out 5/7 via Warp. Pre-order it here.