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Brooklyn’s post-punk stalwarts SAVAK are excited to announce their new album SQUAWK! out May 30 on Ernest Jenning Recording Co. / Peculiar Works Music. The band is also sharing their new single "No Man's Island" and its accompanying music video, which was directed by Rob Kassabian.

About the song video, the band's Michael Jaworski says:

“We were listening to the playback of this song in the studio when turned to Sohrab and said ‘I don’t think I’ve ever written a song before that so accurately depicts how I feel in my life.’ So what the heck does that mean? While there is some ‘abstract expression’ here to be sure, it’s ultimately a song about feeling frustrated in a world where it seems personal gain and status are valued over human compassion and elevating the common good. A song of feeling left behind, but as a conscious choice of resistance against the self-absorbed narcissism and greed of the current times.

And, like most of my songs, it was absolutely influenced by sessions with my therapist, asshole neighbors, concerns about climate change and just wanting to feel something real and meaningful in life. There’s even a reference to a joke told in ‘The Last of Us’ for anyone wanting to go super deep. So I guess one could say this is a song about my search for enlightenment in the coming end times, while trying to determine if it’s better to be on your own island or the one where everyone else is.”

From the desk of Will Fitzpatrick, 39th* bass player for The Rock Group SAVAK

Lucky for some - it’s seventh album time for Brooklyn’s finest sons, the mighty SAVAK! Sohrab Habibion, Michael Jaworski and Matt Schulz have been fighting the good fight together since 2015, accompanied by a veritable cascade of bassists, saxophonists and second drummers. Of course, they’ve been sending missives from punk rock’s front line for much longer, having served in the likes of Obits, The Cops, Holy Fuck, Edsel, Virgin Islands, Enon and more. Still, what better way to celebrate a decade in each other’s company than by releasing their best album yet?

OK, I've routinely greeted every new SAVAK album with 'this one might be their best', but the trajectory continues. The assertively-titled SQUAWK! shows SAVAK throwing a lot of new ideas at the wall, expanding on the masterful concoction of post-punk, melodically collegiate jangle and intelligent esoterica that makes up their body of work prior to this… and all of those new ideas have stuck. Trust me, as someone who had to learn the work of 38* prior bassists for a UK tour, when I say that these songs don’t fuck around.

Let’s start at the beginning. “The Moon Over Marine Park” opens things up in style, building from undulating bass intervals into spoken word verses and a strident, instantly arresting hook. “Article, object, artifact,” intones Habibion, shortly before chiming guitars pile up - classic SAVAK, setting the tone in enticing and thoroughly intriguing fashion.

It’s followed by the soaring “Child’s Pose,” which rides a gloriously garage-punk verse before exploding into a typically classic Jaworski pop chorus (let the records show that I believe Mikey Jaws to be Clint Conley to Sohrab’s Roger Miller). That previously featured on a UK tour flexi disc alongside “Talk To Some People,” which also follows here and sees Habibion immediately setting out to disprove my Mission of Burma analogy by repeating the pop trick. Results? Equally exquisite.

Next up is “No Man's Island,”’ which is possibly the closest the 'VAK has ever gotten to a Lou Reed/Velvets vibe, with an already-memorable chorus bolstered superbly by guest vocals from Tanisha Badman of West Yorkshire fuzz-punkers Goo. But if that feels like new territory for the band, just wait until “American Vernacular” hits - it’s a vibe, as the kids would have it. Ambient, borderline Eno drones go up against a rising drum pattern and a synapse-silencing air of mystery to provide a perfect breather at the album’s midway point.

Side two kicks off here, so let’s cut to the chase and say that “Casual Cruelty” is so fuckin’ purposeful. No dicking around, it just gets to the point effectively and rules outright in the process. The only way you could possibly follow it is by seemingly unearthing a lost R.E.M. classic, and luckily “Tomorrow And The Day After” seems to do precisely that by way of a lilting guitar line and some gorgeously Stipe-esque vocal melodies… all through a uniquely SAVAKfilter, of course

Where can they go from here? How about a glam anthem? Verses to “Hitting Therapy” seem to summon the spirit of Mick Ronson before settling into something a little more restrained, with the band’s first documented use of slide guitar, before the thoroughly lovely “Your Mother Is A Mirror” guides us towards the finale through a mellotron haze. That’s Maria Marzaioli of the legendary Slum Of Legs providing further vibes on the fiddle there, fact fans!

What? The end already? Well, it’s always good to finish with a banger and “Empty Age” certainly bangs... albeit abstractly so. If Doug Gillard had rewritten Here Come The Warm Jets and the second side of Heroes for his own nefarious purposes, he might have come up with something this gleefully, wilfully wonderful, and if it seems like these records are heavy hitters to cite, please note that I don’t do so lightly. A hell of a way to close things out, by anyone’s standards.

Of course they couldn’t do this on their own, and a roll call of friends and compatriots all appear on The Best SAVAK Record Yet™, including longtime collaborators Matt Hunter on bass (Silver Jews, New Radiant Storm King) and Jeff Gensterblum on drums (Small Brown Bike, Coalesce). But what’s clear, thanks in particular to a dynamic mix by Travis Harrison (Guided By Voices, The Men), is that magic has been made here, and for listeners like you and me… it’s our giddy pleasure to savour it.

Tl;dr, yes I love this record. Another bona fide winner for a tremendous band, and another remarkable step forward in an increasingly fabulous oeuvre.

Yeah, I finished on the word “oeuvre.” What of it?

*approximate figures - The actual count of bass players to-date is 12 (please note that number may change by time of printing).

All previous and current bass players in SAVAK are / were:

Matt Hunter

Greg Simpson

Will Fitzpatrick

Geoff Sanoff

James Canty

Matthew Taylor

Peter Kerlin

Anthony Roman

Douglas McCombs

Nick Sewell

Matt McQuaid

Jed Marshall

SQUAWK! tracklist:

1. The Moon Over Marine Park
2. Child’s Pose
3. Talk To Some People
4. No Man’s Island
5. American Vernacular
6. Casual Cruelty
7. Tomorrow And The Day After
8. Hitting Therapy
9. Your Mother Is A Mirror
10. Empty Age