Their fourth studio album Spook The Herd 2020) was released a few weeks before Britain went into lockdown and follows the critically acclaimed Beings (2015) and a live album with the Royal Northern Sinfonia (2017).
On Spook the Herd, singer Hazel Wilde's voice and preoccupations rise to the fore like never before. In tandem, the band break new ground on a set of songs that are unavoidably direct – and crucial. Wilde does nothing less than dive headlong into the existential crises of our times, and proves herself a songwriter possessed of a rare talent for finding the personal contours to contemporary issues, fully inhabiting them to make them real.
The nine songs turn the microscope to issues including our hopelessly polarized politics, social media, addiction, grief and the climate crisis. Yet Wilde’s romantic streak is still the record’s beating heart and shines a hopeful beam of light into the darkness.