Gretel Announces Debut Album 'Squish' With A Title Track That Bites Back

'Squish' lands as Gretel finally trusts her gut and goes all in. The London-based artist today announces her long-awaited debut album, due out on 10th April, alongside its unruly, expressive title track. It’s loud, physical and emotionally charged, setting the tone for a record shaped by girlhood, pressure and survival.

The title track 'Squish' moves through vulnerability and defiance without choosing between them. Gretel frames it as the result of everything that builds up over time - expectation, desire, frustration - until it has to come out somehow. The song captures that feeling of wanting something bigger than yourself, while still learning how to move towards it.

“It’s not about any one thing. It’s all the things that press down on you over time to make this uncomfortable, deformed desire inside. I feel like I always have that desire in me — it’s in this curious place between what the world pushes onto you and what it squeezes out of you. But sometimes I have dreams so oversized that when I look down at myself, I’m just doing this awkward infant waddle towards them.”

The album was recorded live over five days with her band at RAK Studios. After a year of recalibration, Gretel scrapped earlier versions of the record and rebuilt it from the ground up. What came out is the guitar album she always wanted to make, grungy, hook-led and alive with the sound of people playing together in real time.

Across its twelve tracks, 'Squish' is set to explore protection of self, of girlhood and of the people closest to her, while facing down jealousy, desire, rage and tenderness head-on. There’s darkness here, but it’s balanced by care and softness. The album sits inside the body rather than outside it, choosing honesty over polish.

To mark the release of Squish, Gretel will headline London’s Oslo on 14th April, bringing the album into a live setting just days after it lands.