O Monolith

Squid

O Monolith

Second full-length album from the Brighton post-punk band produced by Dan Carey (Fontaines D.C., Black Midi, Goat Girl)

ADM rating[?]

7.9

Label
Warp
UK Release date
09/06/2023
US Release date
09/06/2023
  1. 9.0 |   DIY

    An album of immense power and conviction
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  2. 9.0 |   The Line Of Best Fit

    Monolith, like Field, is stylistically far-ranging, the band as adept as ever when it comes to working with polarities, including cohesion/dissolution, maximalism/minimalism, and ecstasy/dejection
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  3. 8.5 |   Beats Per Minute

    O Monolith is chaotic and improvisational to the bone
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  4. 8.0 |   The Skinny

    For most bands, this tapestry of sounds would flounder and reject its connectivity, but Squid successfully stitch diverse concepts into one brooding work
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  5. 8.0 |   Dork

    An intricate web that is an absolute joy to get tangled up in
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  6. 8.0 |   musicOMH

    The post-punks’ second album juxtaposes delicate melodies and introspective moments with bursts of raw energy
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  7. 8.0 |   Northern Transmissions

    O Monolith is simply the result of giving a young, creative band too much time together on the road. It’s fresh, it’s left-of-center and incredibly energetic
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  8. 8.0 |   All Music

    Reprising her collaboration from their debut is singer Martha Skye Murphy, along with new foils Roger Bolton (Real World's resident technologist) and Tortoise's John McEntire, who mixed the album. All of this adds up to another well-made record that evolved from Squid's origins
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  9. 8.0 |   Spectrum Culture

    If you sit with this one long enough, it may just consume you like the undergrowth beneath you
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  10. 8.0 |   The Quietus

    The bending of time and place and sights and sounds across this record leaves the listener with plenty to digest and a lot to be excited for with what’s to come from Squid
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  11. 8.0 |   NME

    Bolstered by a newfound sense of self-confidence and appreciation for melody, the five-piece's more experimental second album reveals more of itself with each enchanting listen
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  12. 8.0 |   Loud And Quiet

    This ever-evolving, multi-legged creature is a mere squid no longer
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  13. 8.0 |   Clash

    No less inviting than their debut, while asserting its own identity at every corner, ‘O Monolith’ is a fine second album
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  14. 8.0 |   Mojo

    O Monolith is no less bold of palette - opener Swing (in A Dream) embraces taut post-punk chug, jazz trumpet and enveloping synths - but always follows a lucid, compelling logic. Print edition only

  15. 8.0 |   Uncut

    O Monolith channels the shapeshifting patterns of Steve Reich and late-period Radiohead to fashion a kind of lush English pastoral that seethes and shimmers at every turn. Print edition only

  16. 8.0 |   Gigwise

    Chaos and control
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  17. 7.3 |   Pitchfork

    The English band’s second album explores big questions with a bucolic, open-ended new sound. Where once they surged forward, now they wander
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  18. 7.0 |   Under The Radar

    It’s still Squid at their most experimental, but it has more bark than bite
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  19. 7.0 |   PopMatters

    Squid follow up 2020’s Bright Green Field with a tighter, leaner, more refined version of their signature melding of sonic chaos and compositional ambition
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