Track: Ride serve up another tasty morsel with a trip to 'Monaco' ahead of album release and tour

The anticipation to Ride‘s new album ‘Interplay’ is reaching heady proportions with the drip feed of brilliant singles leading up to its release on March 29 via Wichita and PIAS. Next in line is ‘Monaco’ – another indication of Ride’s inherent pop sensibilities and a move to something more motorik and synth based. I’m sure there is an unconscious nod in the title to the band of the same time fronted by Peter Hook, because the style and approach of this new track draws on some of the New Order arrows in the quiver to affix to the bow.

Frontman Mark Gardener’s powerful lyrics are matched by an icy, throbbing synth rock intensity that reflects the urgency of their subject, as he explains:

The backing track came from the earlier Ox4 Sound sessions we did and we gave it a demo name of ‘Monaco’ as we were naming these jams and ideas we were pulling together as place names. One evening, during the recording sessions at Ox4 Sound, the guys had all left the building and I was there with just producer Richie Kennedy and an engineer. I had been writing some words about how I was feeling that everybody was being smashed in the current economic climate with the rise of energy bills and all else; to the point that it just seems now that we’re having to live to work instead of working to live.

The song is a reflection on this feeling of how we’re all being smashed to pieces and under pressure constantly financially. It’s a kind of call to arms against this whilst we still have strength to fight against it. ‘Monaco’ then stayed as the ironic title as the song is totally against the madness of the few who live in their artificial, detached rich bubbles in Monaco.

As ever, passionate and articulate, this confirms the new album will be something of a statement – they are producing so far some of the best singles of their career. And that’s a strong endorsement.