"Fool"

Nadine Shah: "I suppose 'Fast Food' is a coming of age album of sorts lyrically. Rejecting the romanticised idea of 'perfect' love and maturing in respects to relationships and accepting partners pasts. But it isn’t begging for your sympathy, it doesn’t wallow in self-pity. It’s unapologetic and, I hope, empowering.



"Take away these thoughts, take away the fog. Acetate"

METZ's Alex Edkins: "We were more focused on the feel of songs as opposed to the idea of getting something right... In the first record, we were pretty clinical and meticulous in trying to get it perfect as it is in our heads, whereas this one is just a bit grittier and rougher around the edges."



"Retrospective memory"

"'ANTI' is confronting us with despair – pitch-black and constricting. A long cry in the darkest night, turning against the world, and baring all the frustration; seeing the end of everything, but being incapable of talking. The few lighter shades scattered over the record convey a melancholic reference to something that is already dead. A brief review, seeing the beautiful things we made, the potential of humanity, considering that an end has been reached..."



"There's no shade in the shadow of the cross"

Sufjan Stevens: "For so long I had used my work as an emotional crutch. And this was the first time in my life where I couldn’t sustain myself through my art. I couldn’t solve anything through my music any more. Maybe I had been manipulating my work over all these years - using it as a defense mechanism or a distraction. But I couldn’t do that any more, for some reason.
I just didn’t feel like I needed to… work through the death of my mother with noise, but with words.
I definitely felt the desire to rewind and return to a more traditional form. You have to cast out your demons and rebel against your traditions and pursue your interests through the adventure of discovery, but you always have to crawl back to the homeland like the prodigal son."



"Everything is turning out like it wants to. Feels like I've been here before."

Other Lives' Jesse Tabish: "This one was a real journey. It was a long time spent searching for a new identity, still trying to retain the past of our musical palate but also really trying to stretch ourselves into a new type of music."