After announcing their new album Boy King, which drops on August 5th via Domino Records, Wild Beasts have released the video for their new single, ‘Big Cat’. Filmed in several locations outside of Barcelona, Spain and directed by Pablo Maestres.

“If ‘Get My Bang’ was a song of the id then ‘Big Cat’ is the ego,” says lead vocalist Hayden Thorpe of ‘Big Cat’, Boy King’s menacing opening track. “It marked a breakthrough in the writing process for the album, defining the swagger and attitude that would come to shape Boy King. He is all powerful, but at what price?”

Wild Beasts will be in New York following the release of Boy King. They’ll be playing their US album release show at Baby’s All Right on Wednesday, August 10th.

Where 2014’s Present Tense album found Wild Beasts in reflective mood, absorbing a fascination with online culture and electronic music, Boy King has them, as Fleming puts it, “back to being pissed off”. The quartet’s ever-present knack for sensual melody via Hayden Thorpe and Fleming’s dueting vocals, Ben Little’s sinuous guitar groove and Chris Talbot’s potent rhythm section carries in Boy King an aggressive, snarling and priapic beast that delves into the darker side of masculinity and Thorpe’s own psyche. As Hayden himself says, “After five records there had to be an element of ‘what the fuck?'”

The raw pop of Boy King’s songs are the perfect foil to Thorpe’s libidinous lyricism: “it became apparent that that guitar almost became the character within the songs, that phallic character, the all-conquering male,” he says. “I’m letting my inner Byron fully out, I thought I’d tucked him away, but he came screaming back like the Incredible Hulk.” Here lies Boy King’s greatest success. Between the slide of prowling aggression and interior darkness, there are glorious, gorgeous moments. It’s yet another incomparable Wild Beasts record; a visceral, sensual and jolting body of work that acts as a remarkable soundtrack to the early 21st century male malaise. Or as Thorpe puts it: “I think Boy King is an apocalyptic record. It’s about swimming in the abyss. When you think about sex, you’ve got to think about death, they’re one and the same.”

Boy King track list

Big Cat
Tough Guy
Alpha Female
Get My Bang
Celestial Creatures
2BU
He The Colossus
Ponytail
Eat Your Heart Out Adonis
Dreamliner

Wild Beats’ Tour Dates

Tue 26 Jul 2016 UK, Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Weds 27 July 2016 UK, Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Thu 28 Jul 2016 UK, Brighton Hove Old Market
Fri 29 Jul 2016 UK, Brighton Hove Old Market
Fri 05 Aug 2016 UK, London Rough Trade East [IN STORE PERFORMANCE]
Wed 10 Aug 2016 USA, New York City Baby’s All Right
Thu 18 Aug 2016 UK, Green Man Festival
Thu 25 Aug 2016 UK, London Banquet Records [IN STORE PERFORMANCE]
Fri 26 Aug 2016 UK, UK Electric Fields
Sat 27 Aug 2016 Finland, Helsinki Modern Sky Festival
Fri 02 Sep 2016 Netherlands, Into The Great Wide Open
Sun 04 Sep 2016 Ireland Electric Picnic
Sat 24 Sep 2016 Germany, Reeperbahn Festival
Wed 28 Sep 2016 UK, Bristol Motion
Thu 29 Sep 2016 UK, Oxford O2 Academy Oxford
Fri 30 Sep 2016 UK, Margate By The Sea Festival
Sat 01 Oct 2016 UK, Sheffield The Foundry
Mon 03 Oct 2016 UK, Cambridge The Junction
Tue 04 Oct 2016 UK, London The Roundhouse
Fri 07 Oct 2016 UK, Newcastle Northumbria Uni
Sat 08 Oct 2016 UK, Glasgow QMU
Sun 09 Oct 2016 UK, Manchester Academy
Wed 12 Oct 2016 Belgium, Brussels Botanique Orangerie
Thu 13 Oct 2016 France, Paris La Gaîté Lyrique
Fri 14 Oct 2016 France, Tourcoing Le Grand Mix
Sat 15 Oct 2016 France, Strasbourg La Laiterie
Sun 16 Oct 2016 Germany, Cologne Luxor
Tue 18 Oct 2016 Denmark, Copenhagen Pumpehuset
Thu 20 Oct 2016 Germany, Berlin Kesselhaus
Fri 21 Oct 2016 Czech Republic, Prague Lucerna Music Bar
Sun 23 Oct 2016 Switzerland, Zurich, Rote Fabrik
Tue 25 Oct 2016 Italy, Milan, Magnolia
Wed 26 Oct 2016 France, Lyon Epicerie Moderne
Sat 29 Oct 2016 Spain, Bilbao BIME