Bright Green Field

Pitchfork 8.0/10 The English band’s nervy debut blazes through scraps of jazz, funk, krautrock, dub, and punk. More than a canonized style, it’s their level of control that sets them apart.

The Needle Drop 7/10 Some of its ideas do get a little stale, but all in all Bright Green Field is an ambitious and very promising debut album.

NME 5/5 An uncompromising debut that fulfils every ounce of the band’s potential.

The Line of Best Fit 10/10 Curious and capricious, Squid know how to grab your interest and to keep it, deftly remaining unsettling and reaching for the unexpected, and always leaving enough room to dance.

Dork 4/5 It’s a little pretentious, and definitely an album that requires your full attention, but it’s a deceptively good time too.

DIY 4.5/5 Squid always seemed destined to have an epic album in them, and they’ve delivered just that.

The Independent 4/5 It makes for a challenging first listen – deliberately so, you’d guess – but there are real rewards for those who take the time to unravel this cacophony ... This is proudly shape-shifting, genre-defying music.

The Forty Five 4/5 They challenge and toy with their audience, an approach that will win friends and enemies alike. Their ‘Bright Green Field’ is yours for the pillaging: it’s up to you to seek out any treasure within its acres.

All Music 4.5/5 The music is busy, but rarely familiar, and certainly stimulating. Truly a band for the times, Squid feels like a wild jumble of thoughts come to life, effusing anger, confusion, humor, detachment, and even joyfulness in their pursuit of true creative freedom.

The Skinny 3/5 If Squid are the guitar boys' buzz band of the moment, some are going to get a little more than they bargained for on their debut LP.

Gigwise 10/10 Bright Green Field is nothing short of immaculate. On the surface it seems like organised chaos, but as you listen it reveals itself to be so much more.

Under The Radar 9.0/10 Squid accomplishes an impressive feat of ambition with Bright Green Field, pushing past genre confines to craft something singular, thoughtful, and captivating.

Clash 9/10 Succinct yet packed with stunning detail, it refuses to take the easy way out, and that stubbornness may see Squid outstrip their peers in a head-long race towards a re-engaged future.

Mojo 4/5 There’s reassurance to be gleaned from that spirit of examination, and from the accompanying music’s audacity ... Their ambitious record is, in itself, an absolute tonic.

The Observer 3/5 Though nothing here is truly experimental or innovative – it’s more the kind of music that gets labelled as such because of the influences it shows – Bright Green Field has a hurtling energy, each song shifting restlessly, repeatedly in style and pace.

Loud and Quiet 9/10 An entirely dynamic free flow that manages to satisfy a disparate, yet tightly cohesive tracklist. Even to a point where songs converse independently amongst themselves.

Slant 4/5 Originating as a quintet schooled in modal jazz, Squid’s transformation into post-punk disruptors is indicative of a band that relentlessly bucks against their limits. To hear them ply their craft on Bright Green Field, the album represents a crystallization of that impulse.

Spectrum Culture 85% Like (almost) nothing you’ll hear this year, Bright Green Field is a remarkable and unabashedly strange debut for Squid, one that is as perplexing as it is addicting. The only thing more addicting is trying to describe them to your friends.

Beats Per Minute 83% The innovative sonic mayhem of their music is both an acknowledgement of the despair of our existence – and a reminder that nobody is alone in feeling it.

Uncut 9/10 A bold debut that continues their frenetic exploration of post-punk kraut-jazz but also moves into more electronic and soundscape-like worlds.