Cowards is the third full-length studio album from English art rock band Squid. Cowards is an album existing in a strange crossroads, while it is similar in most of its composition to prior Squid records it exists as a continuation of a scene that many would argue has died out. Squid alongside bands Black Midi and Black Country, New Road belonged to a loose collective of musicians known as the Windmill Scene based around the Windmill pub in Brixton. The Windmill Scene was characterized most prominently by a melding of the complex and the emotional sides of many flavors of Art Rock, Progressive Rock, and Post-Rock. Black Midi has since broken up and Black Country, New Road has moved in a distinct musical direction after the departure of their frontman Isaac Wood leaving Squid a band isolated and nigh alone in a scene previously obsessed over.
This sense of weary loneliness can almost be felt in Cowards, within the band’s previous two records Bright Green Field and O Monolith you could still feel a biting and avant-garde energy coming from the band’s instrumentation and vocals. Cowards is distinctly less experimental than the band’s other two records, the band instead making an attempt to refine their elements of rhythm and groove, borrowing greatly from the world of Post-Punk.
The strongest leg of the record is without doubt the first two tracks Crispy Skin and Building 650 with the latter being my personal favorite off the record, both tracks while not bombastic creates dense clouds of bass and drums with jabbing guitars making both them some of my most listened to tracks of the year so far.
Unfortunately, the majority of the rest of the album has little that one could make prominent mention of to the same extent as the opening two tracks most of it meandering between this heavier emphasis on rhythm and in creation of broader sound atmospheres. Cowards is without doubt an album that has the proper ideas of what it needs to make a record on par with its precursors but can’t seem to locate the proper path of execution for these ideas, it is a record lost in time, wandering with no clear destination of what it wants to be and thus it can’t be something truly great. Whether all but the collapse of the Windmill Scene that surrounded the band is to blame or perhaps just creative shortcomings on the part of the band is unclear. Of course, there’s also the need to address the possibility that any disappointment with this record is due to high expectations drawn forth because of the band’s previous success, especially on a record such as Bright Green Field.
All of this criticism I have for the record is not wholly my thoughts, I only address them so concernedly because I know this record could have the potential to be a lot better yet even as it is it is still dense and textured with a lot to appreciate and enjoy in the finer details most especially.
Final Score: 75/100
