Credit: Phil SmithiesThe Wombats will release their new album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life this Friday, and the record finds the English band moving away from the electronic sound of their last effort, 2015’s Glitterbug, in favor of a more organic sound.
“I felt like we needed to do a record that had more swagger and more confidence and was kind of a bit more sure of itself,” frontman Matthew Murphy tells ABC Radio. “And maybe was more in tune and aligned to kinda where we are as a band and three individuals in the midst of our 30s.”
While the music is more direct, the lyrics on Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life are less straightforward and venture into the surreal. With songs like “Lemon to a Knife Fight” and “Cheetah Tongue,” Murphy wanted to avoid simply telling “the story of girl meets boy, they have a break-up and s*** goes down.”
Instead, he challenged himself to “just spurt out thoughts and things that are happening at the time and see what kind of puzzle they form by the end of the three-and-a-half minutes.”
Even with a different sound and lyrical approach, Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life features one signature Wombats element: a sense of humor.
“Sometimes I think we find ourselves going into a much more serious realm, and it seems when we get into that serious realm, we need to shift it back. So I think we’re always kind of battling with that,” Murphy says. “I guess, essentially, it’s just probably reflective of kind of northern English self-deprecation and cynicism and north British humor, I suppose.”
The Wombats will be touring the U.S. this summer while opening for Weezer and Pixies.
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