Enter Shikari Gives The Whole World a Kiss with New Album Drop

The British rock band dropped their anticipated 12-track album A Kiss for the Whole World, featuring previously teased singles such as ‘(pls) set me on fire,’ ‘It Hurts’ and ‘Bloodshot.’ The band’s eighth studio album, released via So Recordings, finally snagged the no. 1 position on the U.K Albums Chart.

“I’m so excited to let this beast out into the wild! It’s such a vibrant album, a cocktail of emotions and I can’t wait for people to delve in. Judging on the way the tracks we’ve played live so far are going down, I think it’s really gonna connect with people.”

– Rou Reynolds

‘A Kiss for the Whole World x’ opens up the album with a bang embodying hard punk and rock guitar riffs before relaxing into a mid-tempo drum beat under an arrangement of trumpets and brass instruments. The opening track sets the tone for the rest of the album with its moody yet upbeat rhythm and lyrical combination. The pre-chorus melody line features a quick drum build-up that explodes into the chorus as lead vocalist Rou Reynolds sings, “And we’re running for our lives now/One last kiss/And this kiss for the whole world.”

The next track, ‘(pls) set me on fire,’ opens with an angelic choir of stack vocals singing out the titular lyrics before turning into a combination of synth and rock as the chorus and pre-chorus are backed by an electronic melody alongside a heavy drumbeat. The sonic and lyrical combination achieve an upbeat anthem that will surely be a fan favorite when it comes time to tour.

With a seamless transition, the next track, ‘It Hurts,’ is slightly contrasting as it’s moodier. It is fitting, considering the song’s lyrics portray a relationship going through problems yet still staying together. The backing to the verse has more of the synth vibe that is present in the previous two tracks, but the lead singer’s voice is low over the track giving the song an intimate touch. The musical tracking explodes as the chorus begins: “It hurts/Every time we fall/But your worth/doesn’t change at all.”

‘Leap into the Lighting’ is the album’s fourth track and leans more into the synth beats and techno sound, slightly subverting from the mostly rock-heavy melody and backing for the past three songs. But one of the album’s staples, dark and heavy drums, is found behind the song’s chorus as the lyrics call out to listeners to “Leap into the lightning” The song’s fourth track blends seamlessly into the next track ‘feed your soul’ which has a sound reminiscent to that of a techno-club DJ remix combined with the repeating lyrical repetition of “Feed your soul.”

The next track, ‘Dead Wood,’ takes a sharp turn from the previous musical tracking as it begins with suspenseful strings that could be found in the climax of a horror movie before changing to a classical arrangement of strings as the song’s lyrics start. The strings continue throughout the song before changing mid-song into a stacked arrangement of distorted vocals that call, “I wish I could feel the way you feel/I want to feel the way you feel.” Soon the classical drum line joins the strings, as well as distant screams in the background of the repeating lines.

‘Jailbreak’ returns to the sonic quality that the first tracks carried with the dependence on a guitar riff as well as the rock drums for the first half of the song before the last third of the song starts, and soon more techno and electronic sounding elements are brought back in as the lyrics “Repeat these words to me/We’ve got to be free/We’ve got to be free now.” As these lyrics play, they are broken up and distorted, effectively portraying the song’s message of breaking out of whatever norms hold the singer in place.

The next track ‘Bloodshot’ opens with a synth track with a heavy reverberating bass that plays behind techno-distorted lyrics “Hypnotised, I’m so hypnotised/I’m so hypnotised” which, when combined with eh musical backing, listeners are sure to find themselves hypnotized by the song itself with its addictive chorus and verses. The following track ‘Bloodshot (Coda)’ features strings that substitute for the synth and electro-backing that lay over ‘Bloodshot.’

‘Goldfish ~’ is an experimental mixture of metal and synth as its angry beat and lyrics play out across the song’s three-minute and twenty-second run. The song’s lyrics tell listeners that the singer is in control as he calls out, “You are under my control/You are a goldfish, I am the bowl.”

The track ‘Giant Pacific Octopus (i don’t know you anymore)’ holds themes of identity and realizing the person you are with has changed. The singer calls himself a chameleon in the song’s beginning before asking the listeners if they know who they are before erupting into a drum-heavy and guitar-shredding chorus where the singer sings out, “I don’t know you anymore/I don’t know you anymore/Or maybe I never did?” Closing out the track is a remixed version of the previous track with the lyrics “Yeah, maybe I did/and maybe I never will,” repeating over a similar backing.

ENTER SHIKARI’s new album is sure to resonate to fans of rock while also appealing to electro-punk fans with its combination of techno and heavy drum beats that are addictive and leave listeners eager to hear the tracks live.

Stream A Kiss for the Whole World, available now on all streaming platforms.