Manchester, England-based Future-Retro-Modernist garage-psych stalwarts THE SPEED OF SOUND return with a new album – their second for Big Stir Records – full of ambition, energy, and eccentric melodic brilliance. Heralded by the hit indie single “West Wind” (with “Trickledown” and “Mind Palace” soon to follow), A CORNUCOPIA: MINERVA hits digital platforms worldwide on May 24, accompanied by Deluxe Three-Disc CD and Vinyl Editions, each including two full-length bonus albums exclusive to the physical versions. Such is the scope of The Speed Of Sound's 2024 vitality that it will take the full year for it all to manifest, and it starts with MINERVA.

Triumphant, defiant and redemptive (and happily coinciding with THE SPEED OF SOUND’s 35th anniversary), A CORNUCOPIA: MINERVA is named for the goddess who, among other things, had defensive warfare in her portfolio. This is reflected in the album’s themes of resistance to mainstream cultural dominance, championing individual identity and artistic creativity whilst forming a vigorous musical celebration of subcultural existence in the face of the frequently bland predominating mainstream.

Fourteen fresh, new and variegated tracks form Minerva, each one a burst of differently-hued radio friendly sonic Technicolor. These new pieces range from a recklessly fast Bo Diddley rhythm successfully merged with a Wagnerian horn section within lead single “West Wind” to the haunting and spacious ballad critiquing Economic Theory in “Trickledown” to the stripped back mediaeval folk tinged starkness of “The Harvest” and on into the stratospheric vastness of “The Great Acceleration”. The album passes on the way through the acoustic guitar driven groove of “SS-100-X”, the spacious iridescence of “Eight Fourteen Monday”, the lively ascendence of “The Party Sniper”, the glowing radioactivity metaphor of “Half Life” and the bright uplifting dementia and identity-loss focused “Mind Palace”. While the bouncing vibe of “Bodysnatchers” reminds us to stay awake and not slip into the drabness of normalcy, the crunching melodic punch of “Clickbait” zings into the typewriter introduction of “Yet Another Tuesday”, the punkified rhythm and blues of “So Faux” and the closing acoustic riot of “Question Time”.

With their inbuilt eclectic and genre-defying style, The Speed Of Sound confound analysis. The songs expand from the band's base-camp foundation of multiple 1960s and punk/New Wave influences, encompassing wide dynamic and stylistic variation, crossing borders and pushing boundaries at every opportunity while retaining continuity. The music bursts with experimentation yet retains the hooks and melodic sensibility, plus the sharp barbed wit, lyrical depth and all-pervading sense of joy that form the irrepressible, uplifting hallmarks of the band. It begins here: MINERVA is now, and especially for those diving into the jam-packed triple LP and CD editions of A CORNUCOPIA, so is the future. THE SPEED OF SOUND brings it to you as only they can.

Veteran Manchester, UK-based Future-Retro-Modernist rockers THE SPEED OF SOUND return to kick off a year of dizzyingly ambitious musical activity with a brand new single. “West Wind” is a gale-force gust of garage-rock grit showing off every bit of the band's signature sound, and a level of energy that's no less than astonishing for a group entering its 35th year as a performing entity. The new single debuts on all digital outlets worldwide on April 5 and is up for pre-order and pre-save now:

https://orcd.co/speedofsound-ww

“West Wind” -- which is also the lead track on the band's forthcoming album, soon to be announced by Big Stir Records – hits the ground running and doesn't slow down for all its breezy 2-minute, 35-second duration. Recklessly fast and invigorating rock and roll, borrowing a Bo Diddley beat cunningly melded with a Wagnerian horn section, the irrepressible rushing wild power unleashed by “West Wind” crushes anything in its path, so hold on tight and ride out the trip with it. The aforementioned horns (trumpet and flugelhorn by Bob Dinn) augment the primal noise kicked up by the band as their two vocalists, singer-guitarist-songwriter JOHN ARMSTRONG and ANNE-MARIE CROWLEY, trade weather warnings over the driving rhythms of drummer JOHN BROADHURST, bassist KEVIN ROACHE and the keyboards of HENRY ARMSTRONG.

“Lyrically this is a protest song; a metaphor for the dominance of the all-pervading major label ‘music industry’ onslaught, snowplowing independent artists out of the way,” offers Armstrong. That's no surprise: astute and barbed social commentary and advocacy for independent art have always been at the core of the band's lyrical outlook, and if anything the new material to be unleashed this year take those themes to a new and ever-sharper level. “West Wind” in particular plays out like Dylan and Baez by way of The Clash, and it's impossible not to take notice.

It's all done with THE SPEED OF SOUND’s boundless drive and life-affirming buoyant energetic zing. Longtime followers will recognize the approach, but still marvel at the vigor of the performance, and that's part of what the band has tapped into for the cornucopia of material to see release in 2024. “West Wind”, for all its meteorological might, is just the earliest forecast of the maelstrom to come, and as someone once said, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows: it hails from Manchester, and THE SPEED OF SOUND is set to soar on it.