The Wombats - Fix Yourself, Not the World (2022) [CD Rip]

When it came to making The Wombats’ fifth album, it was all about tapping into the resurgent energy of 2018’s Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life. That record saw the trio re-establish themselves as one of the UK’s biggest bands with a riot of giddy indie-disco anthems and quirky pop sing-alongs. “We were all extremely happy with how the fourth album turned out and the reactions it got,” frontman Matthew “Murph” Murphy tells Apple Music. “There was a decent amount of pressure, and it was great that we came out of it in the way that we did. I used the energy from that and wanted to bring it into the next one. That’s what I had in my head.”

The resultant record, Fix Yourself, Not the World, combines their trademark hooks and rhythmic interplay with funk-punk grooves—a love of LCD Soundsystem and Talking Heads comes to the fore. It began in a room together but was mainly crafted during lockdown from different locations across the globe—Murphy in Los Angeles, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen in Oslo, and drummer Dan Haggis in London. For Murphy, it marked a point of self-evaluation and reflection. “I feel like lyrically there’s a theme of letting go all the way through this album,” he says. “Letting go of things and being a bit more present. I feel like I’m a bit stronger and more positive.” Murphy, Knudsen, and Haggis guide us through Fix Yourself, Not the World, track by track.