Circa Waves - Death & Love (2025) [Hi-Res]

Circa Waves release their double album Death and Love via Lower Third. Death and Love Pt.1 was both terrifying and liberating to write, and is the first installment of urgent, 9-track hits of cathartic guitar-pop, serving as a powerful coping mechanism to help process frontman Kieran Shudall's near-death experience.

The album sees supreme indie hits including a nice big slab of Strokes-y dancefloor destruction of "Like You Did Before" to its first offering "We Made It", as well as the extremely topical and longing "American Dream".

Back in early 2023, Kieran received a call from doctors to say that the main artery in his heart was severely blocked. Two days later, he was lying on an operating table watching a wire being inserted into his heart to fix it. What followed was the canceling of a lot of shows, working out a lot of medication, and most crucially, now having to navigate a new way of life. And the results are quite simply stunning.

Self-produced by Kieran, and engineered by Matt Wiggins (Adele, Lana Del Rey, Glass Animals), the nine tracks that make up Death and Love Pt.1 ooze nostalgia, and hark back to the sounds and themes that made Shudall want to pick up a guitar in the very first place.

Death and Love is an incredibly powerful snapshot in time - a reflection on a moment of true terror, and the joy of coming through the other side. It's a brave and remarkable next step for a band in the finest form of their career.