Cowards is the third album from the British post-punk band, Squid. I reviewed a post-punk album last year in Yard Act’s Where’s My Utopia?, which many critics liked, but I really wasn’t a fan of it. So I wasn’t exactly looking forward to reviewing this album, but I decided to give it a fair shot. Here are my thoughts.

     “Crispy Skin,” is one of those tracks where I feel the grating vocal performance in the first half kinda prevents the song from being truly great. I really like the guitar riffs and inclusion of piano on this track as it adds a lot to the overall vibe of the track, so even though I really didn’t like the start of it, it overall is an okay track. I do feel that the album can be kinda chaotic sounding at times, and while I appreciate the direction the band is going in on many of these tracks, a more cohesive vision I feel would’ve been nice. “Building 650,” has a more minimalist sound and it sort of reminds me of Gorillaz a little bit, which makes it easily one of my favorites. The layered guitars and horns add a lot of energy to the track, and I really thought the songwriting on this second song was strong and visually engaging. “Blood on the Boulders,” is a very stripped back track with soft guitars and a downtempo drum rhythm, until the bridge where things start to really pick up, and the screechy violins and repetitively yelled vocal refrain is really irritating to listen to. I really liked “Fieldworks I,” and “Fieldworks II,” as they have this very relaxing sound and I liked the lyrical themes of transcending humanity. “Cro-Magnon Man,” had a very art rock style sound to it which I enjoyed as well. “Cowards,” might be one of the most beautiful tracks on the record as the trumpets, guitars, and saxophones create this melancholy atmosphere. It’s a long track (not the longest on the record), but it doesn’t feel like it’s that long of a track. “Showtime,” is another track that goes through multiple phases I like the video game style synthesizers and violins incorporated on it, and the final track, “Well Met (Fingers Through The Fence),” is insanely long, but I still think it’s a decent closer to the album overall.

    While I like quite a few groups that are considered post-punk such as Talking Heads, Joy Division, and R.E.M. I personally feel that this album is very inconsistent, and overall just very mid. A lot of the tracks just felt all over the place and repetitive at times, and I don’t really see myself coming back to this album.

Overall Score: 5/10

Favorite Tracks: “Building 650,” “Fieldworks I,” “Fieldworks II,” “Showtime,” “Cowards,”

Least Favorite Tracks: “Crispy Skin,” “Blood on the Boulders,”

Listen: https://youtu.be/PYjiujGAVe4?si=qp-bHM2jUnV2C0D-

Genres: Post Rock/Art Rock/Post Punk