Squid share “punky” new single ‘against “mass censorship and propaganda”: ‘The Hearth And Circle Round Fire’

Squid have shared a new single called ‘The Hearth And Circle Round Fire’ – you can listen to it below.

• READ MORE: Squid – Cowards review: the Brighton band get freakier and proggier

The frenetic standalone song is an outtake from the sessions for the Brighton band’s third studio album, ‘Cowards’, which was released in February.

“‘The Hearth And Circle Round Fire’ is a punky tune that came together quite easily but we felt dissatisfied with that ease and decided to record it as a 15-minute jam, rip it apart and tape it back together,” explained vocalist & drummer Ollie Judge.

“Lyrically, it was inspired by the dystopian worlds of Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 and Kay Dick’s They, worlds which everyday people succumb to mass censorship and propaganda with only a small amount of people willing to fight against it.”

Clocking in at over six minutes, the distorted and urgent tune includes the lines: “They know where you live/ ‘Cause they peek over hills/ Your silence can be loud/ You’re complicit now/ In 40 years from now/ You write your whole life out/ Who you are and what you do/ Will not matter/ In the end.”

Later, Judge sings: “Ring around those burning books/ Ring around those words you wrote/ Ring around the flames/The kids look so happy/ The salamander’s raring to go.” He closes out the single by repeatedly asking “What you waiting for?“, before it fades into an atmospheric and instrumental outro.

Check out ‘The Hearth And Circle Round Fire’ by Squid above.

Squid are set to play a headline show at the Roundhouse in Camden Town, London this Saturday (April 26). It’ll mark their biggest UK headline gig to date, following a string of performances across the nation.

At the end of this month, they’ll head out on a North American tour with support from FearDorian. The trek includes concerts in Los Angeles, Chicago, Toronto, Philadelphia, Washington DC and Brooklyn.

In a four-star review, NME described ‘Cowards’ as “both freaky and fascinating”, and “uncharacteristically dark for Squid”. The LP had previously been named by NME as one of the most anticipated album releases of 2025.

‘Cowards’ contains the singles ‘Cro-Magnon Man’, ‘Building 650’ and ‘Crispy Skin’.

Speaking to NME around the release of their previous album, 2023’s ‘O Monolith’, Ollie Judge explained: “When we first started playing together seven or eight years ago, we wanted to do things but our musicianship wasn’t as strong as it is today

“Being able to [now] go back and execute what we couldn’t execute then is great. We’re all in the groove now: we’ve never been more confident.”

The post Squid share “punky” new single ‘against “mass censorship and propaganda”: ‘The Hearth And Circle Round Fire’ appeared first on NME.