Out of nowhere, BOOM. Enter Shikari dropped on our plates a brand-new record last month; a 12-song, monologising collection of ups and downs in musical form. And it’s all catchy. Very, very catchy. That’s one of the major bonuses of this latest release. So much so, it feels like a rebirth, yet also poses some intriguing similarities to Rustie’s ‘Glass Swords’. 

Enter Shikari has been a strong, dependable name for the past 20 years, and many of us ‘graduated emos’ still have a lot of respect for the ever-evolving, mixed-genre band. 

‘LOSE YOUR SELF’ is emotionally charged throughout, and the title track is massive. Themes typically navigate isolation in a world that’s increasingly bowing down to technology, while the quirky beats, tongue-in-cheek lyricism and thumping instrumentals still harness all the power they did on day one. If you’re somebody who keeps feeling as though you have a lot of questions, on top nuggets of advice you’re trying to neatly put into boxes, this might well be a cathartic album to listen to.

Look past the mishmash of upper and lowercase tracklistings and you’ll quickly consider ‘Find Out The Hard Way…’ thought provoking — even as it descends into a thrashing of blistering guitars. “Everything’s so futile” goes ‘Dead In The Water’, a piece that feels more depressive than expressive, while there’s a playfulness to ‘demons’ and its messaging; “Don’t run away from your demons; invite them in for dinner”. That might be my new favourite line. 

A real rock-rave hybrid comes into its own on ‘The Flick Of A Switch I.’, and the second part, further in, gives some whimsical electronics followed by scuzzy shredding. Yum. Thereafter, ‘it’s OK’ is a bit more shoegazy with its jaunty, spoken-word wisdom, then frantic rock breaks out on ‘i can’t keep my hands clean’. 

All that raw angst seems to rage to another level on ‘Shipwrecked!’, which definitely smacks of OG ES. And the three ‘Spaceship Earth’ tunes at the end are ace, too. Much the same atmospheric feels and blunt lyrics. Brill.

Gents, if you read this: just know the album came at a seriously good time. 

If you only download one track, let it be: ‘demons’