Bright Green Field is the debut studio album by British band Squid. The album was released on 7 May 2021 through Warp Records.

Recorded throughout 2020, the album was produced by Dan Carey, who had been associated with many of the band's affiliated acts, including Black Midi, Fontaines D.C., and Black Country, New Road.^[4]

In an interview with Exclaim!, frontman Ollie Judge stated that the record's tracks "illustrate the places, events, and architecture that exist within (the album). Previous releases were playful and concerned with characters, whereas this album is darker and more concerned with the place — the emotional depth of the music has deepened."^[5]

More information Aggregate scores, Source ...

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	8.5/10[8]
Metacritic	89/100[9]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[10]
Clash	9/10[11]
Exclaim!	9/10[12]
Gigwise	[13]
The Independent	[14]
The Line of Best Fit	10/10[15]
NME	[16]
Paste	8.0/10[17]
Pitchfork	8.0/10[18]
The Skinny	[19]

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Bright Green Field received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received a weighted average score of 89, based on 19 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".^[9]

NME gave the album a perfect-score rave review, with Will Richards calling it "[a]n uncompromising debut that fulfils every ounce of the band’s potential". He wrote that "(across) the album, which tops 50-minutes in length, the band veer between genres, styles and moods with abandon, mirroring the frightening, ever-changing political and cultural landscape it was created in."^[16] In another perfect-score review, Alice Jenner of The Line of Best Fit hailed the album as "a debut for the ages" and praised its "perfect blend of calm and chaos [...] they stitch together moments of quintessential jazz and soul harmony with cacophonous punk impulse."^[15]

US publications like Paste found that the band's "utter disregard for rock convention elevates Bright Green Field’s paranoid, vaguely dystopian universe".^[17] Timothy Monger of AllMusic called the "much-anticipated debut album" an "energetic shouting match of vivid new wave, Krautrock, and post-punk influences". He went on to note that "[i]n some ways, their debut carries the absurdist lineage [of] 'Houseplants' and 'The Cleaner', two of the Squid's [sic] best-known singles, though it's also clearly its own monster. Like an avalanche gathering up everything in its path, Squid seem to thrive on evolution and an inherent sense of danger." He concluded that as "(truly) a band for the times, Squid feels like a wild jumble of thoughts come to life, effusing anger, confusion, humor, detachment, and even joyfulness in their pursuit of true creative freedom."^[10] Meanwhile, Mojo's Andrew Perry called the album a "thrilling post-punk/Krautrock collision", also directing praise toward Carey's production and Judge's vocals.^[20]

A mixed review came from The Skinny whose Tony Inglis called the group "the guitar boys' buzz band of the moment". He noted that the album "follows in the footsteps of their best track The Cleaner – supercharging the banal and mundane with vigour and purpose – it rips, mixing genres like straight-ahead indie-rock with funk and jazz, and exploring ambient and textural backdrops which make their now-home Warp apt."^[19] Writing for The Observer, Emily Mackay was also critical of the album, claiming that "Nothing here is truly experimental or innovative – it’s more the kind of music that gets labelled as such because of the influences it shows."^[21]

• Ollie Judge – lead vocals, drums
• Louis Borlase – guitar, bass guitar, vocals
• Arthur Leadbetter – keyboards, cello, percussion
• Laurie Nankivell – bass guitar, cornet, percussion
• Anton Pearson – guitar, bass, vocals, percussion
• Nataly Corolscaia – violin
• Lewis Evans – alto saxophone
• Georgia Hannington – cello
• Charlie Keen – trombone
• Yulia Knowles – viola
• Emma-Jean Thackray – trumpet^[29]