Savages - Marshal Dear

"Can you hear me now?" Jehnny Beth, formidable lead singer of Savages, asks directly of the listener on Marshal Dear, before making the demand that titles and typifies the entire album: "Silence yourself." In this greyscale, dystopian new animated video, artillery and explosions and the juxtaposed monotony of factory assembly lines that create them are set to the simmering, rebellious chaos of a drunken sax solo, menacing bass and Beth's furious choruses. This is the moment on the album at which the band set their gaze directly on their audience and dare them to not speak, just for a moment, to stop the banal forward motion of their lives and to stare into the heart of what's boiling beneath. 

'Silence Yourself' has been nominated for a Mercury Prize; if we ruled the world, this is who would be in the running with them.

Matador release 'Silence Yourself' in June 2013.