Enter Shikari released a surprise album “Lose Your Self” at midnight last night (10th April) with no prior musical releases, statements or clues, which is unique for the music industry, but on brand for Enter Shikari, as they are known to be one of the most surprising, explorative and experimental bands in the world. Their fans stay vigilant and try to keep up, but no one was prepared for this!
The album explores themes of desolation, futility and complete despair at the state of the world, but with glimmers of hope and optimism threaded throughout while the music twists and turns without warning, consistently igniting our senses and continuously evoking different emotions.
The albums’ surprise release is just as surprising as the sounds, while the band stay true to their original Shikari routes, they creatively display something completely different to anything we’ve ever heard before.
Enter Shikari have always produced music that emphasizes authenticity and focuses on the truth of the world, as ugly or as beautiful as it may be. “Lose Your Self” is a wholeheartedly uplifting album while the world is in the current state that it is in. It’s the album we didn’t know we needed until it became our everything and reminded us that Enter Shikari have always been a band we knew we could rely on.
The album’s songs are all hugely different and stand alone from each other (although some come in multiple parts-see the full track list below for more details). However, the album takes us on a complete musical journey through emotive storytelling, poetic expression, hard-hitting bass, electronic beats, and of course, transitionally perfected breakdowns to mosh to expressionistically with of course multitudes of experimental noise.
Rous’ soothing and soulful voice becomes determined and prominent where needed with vocals warping and sonically defying each word of fury while adlibbed and highlighted alongside intently strummed electric guitar chords, and layered vocals that give depth to the meaningful lyrics. The synchronized instrumental mash ups lead to heartfelt choruses, hardcore breakdowns and back again, giving us musical whiplash. We can’t wait to mosh, rave, cry and dance to this album in it’s entirety when it’s played live.
Enter Shikari’s songs make us critically question our future and how the world really works while creating interesting fluctuations and unexpected sounds, which has always been one of their specialties. They take what they need from different genres and put their own inspirational twist on them with ease and manage to mesh unrelentless and opposing sounds together stunningly. Rhythmically perfected drum beats ground us while we’re enthralled in the melodic chaos.
The album is personal, with each song having deeper meanings and multiple layers, while new motives become clearer with every listen. Enter Shikari have always been an extremely relatable band who merge our human experiences together and portray them so authentically and cleverly through their musical talents. This album is no different and has 12 new songs to empower us and make us feel part of something unique while remaining fully immersive.
This really is an album to lose yourself to while your senses are engaged and ignited throughout. Their songs are thought provoking while transcending us to a safe but challenging place within our selves. This in my opinion, is the most raw, honest and elaborate offering from them yet. We can see how far they’ve come and how much they’ve grown musically since day one, constantly pushing their own and the music industries boundaries.
They’re the storytellers of our musical generation and they inform and encourage us to become future historians just like them. Their music doesn’t just make us listen; it makes us feel something, in a truly special way.
Listen to the album here; https://entershikari.os.fan/
Tracklist;
- LOSE YOUR SELF
- Find Out The Hard Way…
- Dead In The Water
- demons
- The Flick Of A Switch I.
- i can’t keep my hands clean
- it’s OK
- The Flick Of A Switch II.
- Shipwrecked!
- Spaceship Earth (I.Avec Abandon)
- Spaceship Earth (II. Angoscioso)
- Spaceship Earth (III. Maestoso)
Frontman, Rou Reynolds articulates the following, about the album;
“Despite turning out to be one our darkest and heaviest albums to date, it also preaches hope and offers answers.
Shikari will always offer hope, because without hope there is no action. We’ll just always offer it with a dose of realism.”
