| Cowards | ||||
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| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 7 February 2025 | |||
| Genre | ||||
| Length | 44:59 | |||
| Label | Warp | |||
| Producer |
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| Squid chronology | ||||
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| Singles from Cowards | ||||
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Cowards is the third studio album by the English post-punk band Squid. It was released by Warp Records on 7 February 2025, and was met with widespread acclaim by music critics.
Cowards was recorded after the completion but before the release of the band's second album, O Monolith , with recording finishing on 9 June 2023. [1] It was inspired by traveling to different countries and reading books about the countries to create what lead singer and drummer Ollie Judge described as a "book of dark fairy tales." [2] Some of these books included Agustina Bazterrica's Tender Is the Flesh and Ryū Murakami's In the Miso Soup . [2]
The lyrics touch on a variety of topics within the overall topic of "evil itself", with "Crispy Skin" being about cannibalism and "Blood on the Boulders" about the Manson murders. [3]
Cowards has been described as both post-rock [4] and art rock, [5] with influences from a diverse set of other genres, including electronica, folk music, and psych rock. [6] The album was seen as a continuation of the band's distancing from their earlier post-punk sound. [4] Writing for The Quietus , Cal Cashin described Cowards as "A Pet Sounds , except all of the pets are scorpions, and tarantulas, and maybe some stick insects too". [4]
| Aggregate scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AnyDecentMusic? | 8.2/10 [7] |
| Metacritic | 85/100 [8] |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [9] |
| Clash | 8/10 [10] |
| DIY |  [11] |
| The Line of Best Fit | 8/10 [12] |
| MusicOMH | [13] |
| NME | [14] |
| Paste | 8.2/10 [15] |
| Pitchfork | 7.6/10 [3] |
| The Skinny | [6] |
| Under the Radar | 9/10 [16] |
Cowards was released by Warp Records on 7 February 2025. [6] It follows Squid's 2023 album O Monolith . [15]
According to the review aggregator Metacritic , Cowards received "universal acclaim" based on a weighted average score of 85 out of 100 from 17 critic scores. [8] In a review for Paste , Alli Dempsey wrote that "Sonically, Cowards might be Squid's most actualized and in-depth venture yet." [15] Writing for Under the Radar , Nick Roseblade felt that Cowards was "the strongest album Squid has released to date". [16]
All tracks are written by Louis Borlase, Ollie Judge, Arthur Leadbetter, Laurie Nankivell, and Anton Pearson.
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Crispy Skin" | 6:19 |
| 2. | "Building 650" | 3:51 |
| 3. | "Blood on the Boulders" | 5:46 |
| 4. | "Fieldworks I" | 2:23 |
| 5. | "Fieldworks II" | 3:19 |
| 6. | "Cro-Magnon Man" | 4:07 |
| 7. | "Cowards" | 5:51 |
| 8. | "Showtime!" | 5:08 |
| 9. | "Well Met (Fingers Through the Fence)" | 8:15 |
| Total length: | 44:59 | |
| Chart (2025) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [17] | 172 |
| Scottish Albums (OCC) [18] | 17 |
| UK Albums (OCC) [19] | 92 |
| UK Independent Albums (OCC) [20] | 5 |