Last we heard from Savages, the British punk band were teasing their upcoming record by having Henry Rollins read passages from Phyllis Rose’s Jazz Cleopatra: Josephine Baker in Her Time by Phyllis Rose. That was August, and now that the leaves have browned and the weather has gone cold, it’s the right time for a bout of new music from the London crew.
This morning we get it in “The Answer,” a pummeling new track with rolling hardcore guitars that’s the first bit of music off upcoming sophomore record Adore Life. The follow-up to 2013’s breakout LP Silence Yourself is out January 22 via Matador. It already sounds like a winter album — and a powerful one at that.
Of Adore Life, Savages say in a press release:
It’s about change and the power to change. It’s about metamorphosis and evolution. It’s about sticking to your guns and toughing it out. It’s about now, not tomorrow. It’s about recognizing your potential. It’s about self-doubt and inaction. It’s about you. It’s about me. It’s about you and me and the others. It’s about the choices we make. It’s about finding the poetry and avoiding the cliché. It’s about being the solution, not the problem. It’s about showing weakness to be strong. It’s about digging through your dirt to look for diamonds. It’s about claiming your right to think unacceptable thoughts. It’s about boredom and the things we do to drive it away. It’s about being on your own so you can be with people. It’s about knowing what it means to be human and what it might mean one day. It’s about the parts and the sum of the parts. It’s about the music and the message: together, one and the same. It’s about bass, guitars, drums, and vocals. It’s about opening-out and never, ever dying. But most of all it’s about love, every kind of love. Love is the answer.
“The Answer” arrives today with a video directed by Giorgio Testi, which captures the band’s live intensity. “We’ve observed our audience all around the world and noticed that something is happening,” Savages say about the video. “People want to be pushed to do good, or to be good, or just to feel good. We wanted a very intense video, that felt like banging your head against the wall, focusing on our audience: a portrait of our crowd, an homage to music lovers and the good people who are coming to gigs and shouting their lungs out, or just smiling at the back. We were touched by them every night, and wanted to get their message out there: loud guitar music is still alive and still connects people.”
Get connected below. And check the Adore Life artwork afterwards.
Featured photo by Colin Lane.
