Acclaimed British actress Charlotte Ritchie stars in Squid’s new video for ‘The Blades’.
The band will release second album ‘O Monolith’ on June 9th, and the previews are coming thick and fast. New song ‘The Blades’ is online now, and the jagged complexity of the math-adjacent rhythms are placed against an open, direct vocal from Ollie Judge.
In a note, the singer labels the song “a lot more vulnerable than stuff we’ve previously done, which can be quite a daunting thing.”
There’s a narrative aspect to the lyrics, one that blends a penchant for the humdrum with an ever-present eeriness. The singer continues…
“On the surface it’s a song about police brutality with the last section kind of inspired by The Tell Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe, although I’ve never read the book, I’ve just seen The Simpsons’ spoof of it. Narratively it follows a police helicopter pilot’s day, ending with him in bed hearing another pilot circling the skies as if he were taunting him. There’s a deeper meaning in there somewhere of my fear of ego, but I’m still working out which bit of the song that’s coming from.”
Acclaimed director Kasper Häggström helms the clip for ‘The Blades’, an apt choice given his own predilection for pivoting between the grim mundanity of everyday life and something strange, almost magical.
The clip finds Charlotte Ritchie – who made us cry in Call The Midwife, and laugh in Ghosts – entering a building for a doctor’s appointment, but her presence is split between two landscapes. Cyclical, and curiously surreal, it seems to perfectly navigate the song.
The director comments…
“At last we get to work together! Thank you for trusting in my idea and for presenting me with such a great track from your latest album. This concept is one I’ve been thinking of for a while now and it fits seamlessly with the track.”
Tune in now.
Photo Credit: Alex Kurunis
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