Enter Shikari have shared “It Hurts”, the second single to be taken from their highly-anticipated forthcoming album ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’, which will be released on 21st April via SO Recordings / Ambush Reality.
“It Hurts” follows January’s earth-shaking lead single and video “(pls) set me on fire”. It brings with it a call to switch up our worldview and reassess the ways in which we judge ourselves – all in a flurry of race-to-the-finish-line intensity.
Lead vocalist and producer Rou Reynolds explains: “It Hurts came to me in a dream. Literally. Melody, chords, and fully-formulated chorus were all part of a dream that, thankfully, remained with me when I woke up. I was hiding under the duvet at 3AM, singing it into my phone, much to the bewilderment of my girlfriend.
Lyrically, It Hurts is about perseverance, and the importance of reframing failure as a fruitful and, in fact, pivotal route to progress. Society teaches us we should avoid and criticise failure, when defeat and honest mistakes can actually present us with insights that light our way forward.
In reality, we should be taught that simply to try makes us more than enough.”
As the calendar now signals three years since Enter Shikari last released an album – their UK #2 charting album ‘Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible’ – it is useful to think back to the final question the band last posed fans: “Is this a new beginning? / Or are we close to the end? ” Little could they know just how close to the end things would end up feeling as the events of the early ‘20s dimmed the light in the furnace of their live juggernaut, and connection to their fans. “At the time it felt like we ourselves, as musicians, were experiencing the death of our band,” explains Rou Reynolds.
The album’s lead single “(pls) set me on fire” sparked the next stage in the band’s evolution, and the first words we hear from Enter Shikari 2.0 don’t come in the form of a question this time, but a command: “Please set me on fire”. In other words, ignite the spark inside us and set us free. This may be a new Enter Shikari but they’ve lost nothing in their flair for bold opening gambits.
Reynolds comments on the single’s conception: “Honestly, I thought I was f. I’ve never felt so detached from my soul, my purpose, my f* spirit. I didn’t write music for almost two years. The longest I’d gone before that was two weeks. I was broken. It’s almost as if my brain had asked: “What is the point in music if it cannot be shared? What is the point in writing music if it’s not to be experienced with others?” and then promptly switched itself off. ‘(pls) set me on fire’ grew out of that desperation. This song is a projectile vomit of positive energy. Every emotion trapped inside me for two years, finally set free.”
It was in the Spring of 2022 that the band descended to the coastal town of Chichester, and a dilapidated farmhouse, to rebuild their studio setup and capture their renewed momentum on record. Using only solar power to track the album – in what Reynolds says was to “bring back some sense of naivety” – the life-giving properties and Technicolor palate of ‘A Kiss For The Whole World’ were made real.
Reynolds continues: “Back to basics. This band – my best friends – bundled into an old farmhouse, miles away from anywhere. Off-grid, and ready to rediscover ourselves. This album is powered by the sun, the most powerful object in our solar system. And I think you can tell. It’s a collection of songs that represent an explosive reconnection with what Enter Shikari is. The beginning of our second act.”
‘A Kiss For The Whole World’ Tracklisting
- A Kiss for the Whole World x
- (pls) set me on fire
- It Hurts
- Leap into the Lightning
- feed yøur søul
- Dead Wood
- Jailbreak
- Bloodshot
- Bloodshot (Coda)
- goldfĭsh ~
- Giant Pacific Octopus (i don’t know you anymore)
- giant pacific octopus swirling off into infinity…