The Wombats today unveil their new single ‘Can’t Say No’; the final offering from the chart-topping, platinum-selling indie heroes before the release of their sixth studio album, Oh! The Ocean, out 14th February 2025 via AWAL Recordings. The band will soon be embarking on a massive UK & European Tour throughout March & April that sees them play their biggest headline shows to date – tickets available here.
‘Can’t Say No’ examines the human need to throw ourselves into wild, often self-destructive experiences in order to distract ourselves from our inner anguish. “We’d rather run away than feel at all”, Murph sings of in-song escapades including car theft, vandalism, far eastern voyages and demon worship.
Speaking on the track Murph says, “’Can’t Say No’ would be my favourite on the album I think, I kind of wanted it to sound like the 3 of us playing in a room together if that room was in space. The song is about making decisions that in no way benefit my future self, and in fact cause my future self a lot of problems. I never truly learnt to live ‘in’ the moment, I was only ever living ‘for’ the moment and as if that moment was going to be my last.”
Two years since scoring their debut UK #1 album with Fix Yourself Not The World, The Wombats are back and bigger than ever. Oh! The Ocean (Pre-order here) trembles with the confessional emotional honesty that makes the Liverpool band’s music as cathartic and relatable as it is catchy and playful, to their continuously growing young fanbase.
The Wombats took 50 new songs to Echo Park, LA, in July 2024 for six weeks of sessions with new producer John Congleton (St Vincent, Wallows, Death Cab for Cutie) to create their most sonically adventurous album yet. The title is inspired by a revelatory trip to the beach Murph took on a family holiday.
Speaking on the experience, Murph says: “I’ve been to many beaches and seas and coasts over the years but for some reason it felt like the first time I had ever seen it and was truly present. There was this revelation that I had been living a life caught up in my own head, or in some kind of racing helmet or with blinkers on. It was really a potent experience. I felt like I saw everything new for the first time, and was aware that I had been so selfish to not take in how crazy the world and life is. I’d been caught up in my own BS for way too long. The album offers up some internal questions like: why are my head and body disconnected all the time? Why am I incapable at times of seeing any form of beauty in the world or in others? Why do I expect the world to conform to my will? Why do I never stop and smell the flowers?”
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