tl;dr - this album is fucking incredible and I expanded on why in Shikaricord so reposting here. Mucho texto, maybe make a coffee first. Started my second listen. Title track is an INSANE opener. The moment I caught the Reprise 2/Common Dreads/System... synth motif I popped the FUCK off. The way they chop it up and use it as the foundation of Lose Your Self is inspired on a level that makes my fucking jaw drop when I consider the thematic implications. Common Dreads gives way to 'common dread', the fear and feeling of futility that drives most of the album, but then, as now, we're in this together. It was better to realise this decades ago but the second best time is right fucking now. The way the low-end PUNCHES in around three minutes - that is gonna cause fucking CARNAGE at the November shows. Magnificent opener. The way it wobbles between keys before resolving itself into the FOTHW transition is so, so fucking clean. Slight tempo pickup and we're off to the races. The song that teed up the big reveal last week; for all intents and purposes, 'the single'. A fucking banger with an appeal to class consciousness analogous to Solidarity from 2009. Hints of Great Unknown/Crossing the Rubicon - I feel like this is perfectly at home on either Nothing is True or The Spark. It feels like an urgent reminder that our species is fucked unless we properly learn to rely on one another. Not in a liberal 'we should all just get along' sense, in a 'leaning on our fellow human beings when we can't do it alone will see us through' sense. It's something I've always believed. The breakdown goes hard as fuck too, that helps. whrrrr I was trying to place what band Dead in the Water reminded me of: Everything Everything. A few strands of that band's DNA have popped up on songs like the pressure's on & It Hurts, but I feel like this song could fit on the band's post-Brexit autopsy A Fever Dream (2017). They share Shikari's affinity for conceptual frameworks and political insight. A song that speaks to the plight of immigrants, even tugging at English sensibilities with a White Cliffs of Dover reference, I said I was surprised this wasn't already a song they'd written, but then again the 'stop the boats' lot have only really popped up in the last couple years. That cry of 'DEAD!!!' into the wordless chorus is the kind of shit that gives you goosebumps. The transitions are on point. So far we've had a song railing against the cult of the individual, one calling for class consciousness and one about how those seeking new lives and emigrating are literally being left to drown, so four songs in we get Shikari on a 160bpm drum and bass tear with a song about generational trauma. Something I'm only catching now on a close listen is the stuttering background meant to mimic the sound of moving suitcase wheels as Rou sings 'dragging a suitcase full of her great-grandfather's misery'. This song proves a point I have long made about Shikari and reiterated to that friend I mentioned last night as we listened: these guys are fucking incredible pop songwriters. That they are able to show off like this while still being resolutely themselves and not compromising on who they are as a band is super impressive. The 'selling out' debate is old hat and has been for decades; Shikari are at the point where their most accessible stuff is a Trojan horse for their values and ideals. (Rou's vocals are also on point, which brings me to...) First thought: "Is that Rou singing??" Second thought: "HE CAN DO THAT???" We don't hear his high voice too often (Airfield comes to mind). This is a classic 'the emperor's got no clothes' song; pissed-off, scathing, prime for a Wizard of Oz reference but Rou nods to the Chronicles of Narnia instead I believe (The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe) with a fragmented ending that subverts the usual expectation (Flick of a Switch II. is later in the tracklist and I see why), instead splintering off, via a reference to the Prodigy's Poison (95EQ) [a banger, excellent pedigree] into a lo-fi howl of frustration called 'i can't keep my hands clean'. Walled-off and discordant, it ties back to the 'climbing out of the ditch' lines in FOAS I., serving as a breakdown/coda for that song but instead presented as its own thing. Swerving off into unexpected territory is obviously what's on the menu because I was not prepared for what comes next. It's OK? It's better than okay but it was quite a shock to hear this. Enter Shikari do Britpop? Liam Gallagher impression in the chorus? (I rate Pulp and Blur both miles higher than Oasis btw) Never thought they'd do a song like this. Love the half-time groove. Massive chorus drop - obviously this has a lot of satirical bite behind it but I loved the 'System' lyrical flip on the 'maximising shareholder value' bit and I am adding 'you're a side salad that no one ordered' to my insult lexicon IMMEDIATELY. Verses sung from the perspective of some fuck-you-got-mine big business dude with cracks forming beneath his feet. Call-and-response bridge is cool. Biggest surprise on the record for me. Hmm. Why is this here? They obviously wanted to give Flick of a Switch II. its moment in the sun, but not sure why ye-- wait. They sampled the strings tuning up at the start of Dead Wood?? Deep cut. Same melody basis, I hear some synths pulsing in the background, pitched vocals-- bwoooomph. Oh boy. That might jumpscare me one day. Spoken chorus reprise... they're building up to something... Oh. Oh fuck. Jaw on the floor. Subverting expectations again for 30 seconds of face-melting riffs at the moment where we least expect it, giving way to marching drum rolls to segue into a song I have high expectations for because I've seen people here and elsewhere gas it up. Shipwrecked is that song. Absolutely fucking colossal, the band once again playing to their accessible strengths, pinging between that and thudding heaviness. The proper chorus drop made me smile from ear to ear, like I knew it was coming but nothing could have properly prepared me for that. Inspired by an actual shipwreck incident as well as containing a direct reference to the descent into lawless savagery that drives Lord of the Flies, it's an appeal (no mindsweep) to humanity to course-correct and come together instead of collapsing into every-person-for-themselves anarchy. You gotta lose your self. Please play this next week. Giant Pacific Octopus vibes on the outro. Spaceship Earth I: Welcome aboard! OH HELLO DOUBLE-TIME DRUMS, HI ROB. I've been quietly appreciating what he's been doing across this album (also a drummer so it's what I pick out) but he is absolutely locked in here. Avec Abandon is fucking right. There is no escape hatch and Shikari are pushing 250bpm at breakneck speed. Pleasure, consumption, stripping the earth for all it has to offer: won't someone hit the brakes? There has to be more than this. The party has to end sometime, and this song comes to a fittingly abrupt halt, clattering into... Spaceship Earth II: The engines are sputtering, the passengers are rioting, we drop back to ~125bpm as that sense of momentum is sucked out the airlock. 15 seconds in, we hear a piano line, a new entry that will become central to this suite, Rou's lyrics calling back to The Dreamer's Hotel and my beloved Jailbreak, before a reference to Losing My Grip precedes the chorus. Chills. Fucking. Everywhere. The background synth sound is pure Take to the Skies, combined with a winking reference to 'taking to the stars'; they know what they're doing. The full band entry is glorious, one final repetition of the chorus, a culmination of the dark clouds hovering over the entire record. Rob cuts loose, the synth line takes over, here come the tears... but. Spaceship Earth III: The orchestra takes up that gorgeous motif and I can't lie, the switch-up reduces me to a sobbing wreck. I think I'm losing my grip. The chord progression stays, Rou's vocals floating back in with a message of reassurance; rather than the sneering sarcasm of It's OK, this is raw, real and true. Sometimes it feels like nothing is, but this album exists to remind us that everything is still possible. We cannot, must not give up. 'Hold on, hold on, a change is gonna come.' Released the day before Artemis II splashes down after a successful moon mission—a staggering coincidence—and just before a load-bearing fascist government is wiped out in Hungary, Lose Your Self closes with one of the most beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard. If I ever hear this live I will not be able to contain myself. I feel that common dread, and sometimes everything does indeed seem so futile, but despite my lifelong battle with depression telling me to give in to pessimism, you can pry the last spark of hope from my cold, dead hands. A hug for the whole world at the end of it all. I needed this album, and five days ago I had no idea it existed. Thank you Enter Shikari. This is an absolute fucking triumph. See you next week.
great writeup, I'm gonna have to give this several more listens now I can pry myself away from the discog I've been obsessed with for weeks. really feels like they did something special here also realising I completely missed Losing My Grip when it came out, my interest in this band was kinda at a low point then but I'm still surprised I missed a whole ass JAB collab
jason keeps featuring on songs from bands i love and being in fever mode and it perplexes me every time lol, happened on the last unprocessed album too
Yeah, that's like one of the few Shikari songs I just can't get into. Not many of those in their catalog, though.
took this on a clear my head kinda walk and goddamn the average BPM of these songs was making me want to do the Rocky training montage sprint instead. banger after banger after banger
Okay I can see that now that I'm going back into the discography. I definitely prefer them with a heavier sound than I do with albums like The Spark. This is definitely up there as a top album from them for me though, I feel like I love EVERY song on this album.
I agree every song is great on this album - the only one I don't care for too much is 'I can't keep my hands clean' but I guess it is just an interlude really
Love just how much of The Spark is on this record. The little morsels of pop/britpop amongst the more traditional ES stuff makes me so happy. You can actually find a little bit of most records on this- the sequencing and left swings of Mindsweep, Pop of The Spark, electronics/programming of TTTS, heaviness of AFFOC. Feels like the album they could’ve made right before or after The Spark
threw on Nothing is True for the first time in ages, forgot how incredible the pressure's on is, sneaky top 10 Shikari song. can't think of a lyric more relatable than "I throw myself into the day but I just seem to ricochet"
I did my Wednesday gym session to (most of) this and it really is a good high-tempo record to work out to on top of everything else.
I coach a CrossFit class one day a week and there Flick of the switch on my playlist and it got people dancing!
pretty much listened to the whole discog over the past few days, goddamn I love this band unfortunately Kiss kinda holds up even worse when you spin it right after this lol, I fucking love Dead Wood though
i love that demons hook but i also have no idea how tf rou is able to sing that. would be clunky in the hands of most acts but it manages to thread that "on paper shouldnt work but only they can land" line a lot of their stuff does for me lol dead wood being like the only essential kiss song sans pls set me on fire is brutally contextualized by it starting during the nit&eip sessions but it is super super good
6 days in, can confidently claim this is now my favorite Enter Shikari album. They really went for it this time
kinda forgot about DW being from the NIT sessions lmao, that is pretty brutal but tbf I always jam it back to back with set me on fire because of the lyrical connection so that's one point I'll give to Kiss I'd never doubt this band's sincerity but something about how that demons hook hits feels a bit too twenty one pilots for me