Enter Shikari – Radiate (2013)

Enter Shikari are a band who can never be found doing nothing. After the ‘Return To Energiser’ tour ended earlier this year, Shikari’s Lions (their loyal fan base) were lead to believe they weren’t going to be hearing much from the 4 St Alban’s lads for a while. However, within a few weeks, plans for 2 more tracks following ‘The Paddington Frisk’ were to be released. ‘Radiate’ is the second of the three ‘just for the hell of it’ tracks to be released and it does not disappoint.

‘To take away our expression is to impoverish our existence’, says frontman and all round Twitter joker Rou Reynolds, before a classic Shikari drop. This opening line packs a punch and lets us know this song is keeping with popular themes for the genre defying quartet. The opening line links nicely to the message of the chorus – ‘To keep us from falling apart, we’ll write songs in the dark.’

Moving away from the background of third studio album, A Flash Flood Of Colour, which focused on more environmental issues, it seems that Reynolds is writing about more relatable issues in his industry: censorship within art. Of course, the idea of hope is not lost in this song, ‘To keep us from fading away, we’ll write for a better day’ – yet another anthemic chorus. Well done boys, well done.

In terms of musicianship, Shikari have managed to fuse sounds from their early Take To The Skies years with their more recent years creating yet another unique sound to add to their collection. As mentioned before, it contains classic Shikari sounds; a very bassy drop early on, an aggressive ‘Oi!’, a lovely array of electronics and a rare but ever-beautiful vocal solo from Reynolds. It’s also nice to see a full length song again after the initial ‘for the hell of it track’ lasted a mere 1 minute 17 seconds!

I honestly don’t feel I have any criticisms about this song. Perhaps it’s because I’m a lion myself, but whether you’re a long-time fan or a first-timer, I would definitely give this a listen!