We know you all have been waiting for this one, so we are beyond pleased to announce that The Skints’ highly-anticipated fourth album, SWIMMING LESSONS, will be released on May 10, 2019, but you can pre-order it now! Drawing on influences as sprawling as Bad Brains, Popcaan, No Doubt, Alton Ellis, Wiley and Weezer, Swimming Lessons deals with crushing heartbreak, the impending doom of Brexit, surviving as an independent musician and navigating the weird world of 2019 – all of these are proverbial “swimming lessons” life throws at us. Click here to pre-order, Swimming Lessons.
Lyrically their darkest and most introspective release to date, Swimming Lessons takes its inspiration from reggae, soul, dub, punk, ragga and rap. The Skints have a knack for fusing different genres of music that strike an accessible chord with a political, personal and philosophical message. From 8 Bit-influenced dancehall to sound system shaking dub, melodic grunge to harmony-laden soul, Swimming Lessons boasts collaborations with three of Jamaica’s brightest roots stars of today.
“In the four years since our last album, FM, the band has toured globally non-stop. The creative hunger in us has been building up so much, because as an independent operation, we simply haven’t had the luxury of spending money on studio time whilst playing to sustain ourselves”, says guitarist and vocalist Josh Waters Rudge.
New single “Learning to Swim“ is a sentimental blend of lovers rock, pop and hardcore punk as The Skints confront personal tragedy while the rub-a-dub heavy “Restless“, questions the broken promises and perpetual lies of those governing over us today and features Grammy-nominated Jamaican reggae star Protoje on vocal duties who flows on the track in a style only he can deliver.
Elsewhere, The Skints delve into pop-punk territory with “What Did I Learn Today“ and “The Island“, showcasing the band’s ability to effortlessly jump from one genre to the next, before the collaborations continue with freestyler Runkus on the carnival-friendly “Armageddon“ and Jesse Royal on the soulful “Love is the Devil.”
“As well as enlisting some of the absolute best of Jamaican vocal talent on the features, we’re really trying to push all ends of the spectrum of what The Skints music is and can be. Our whole back catalog is diverse in mood and emotion, song to song, and on Swimming Lessons, we’ve tried to take things a step further”, adds keyboardist/vocalist Marcia Richards.
