Cinematic, Psych/Art-Rock band Babal published the official preview video for their upcoming new album “Running In The Gutter,” set for release August 08, 2025 via Fruits De Mer Records. Watch the video via YouTube player below:
“Running in the Gutter,” Babal’s 13th album, the first to be released on Fruits de Mer Records, definitely hits the ground running and keeps you locked into their immersive world of intense lyricism and musical ideas; the resulting album is a beautifully crafted selection of hypnotic and rhythmic pieces, each delving deeply into the world we think we know. Babal have come up with a blend of songs that illustrate the band’s improvisational skills, still retaining musical ideas that weave poetry and dynamic vocals that are at the band’s core.
Opening track “One Big Family” is a full-on attack on social media; the rise of the biggest brain-washing experiment in history; “eye sockets sore, mind in chaos, thoughts flying round, like a bird in a cage, manic with facts and terrible rage! Nowhere to go, I can’t turn the page!”
“The Best Restaurants” is a sharp take on poverty consciousness and opposing huge wealth, and a vain hope that religions may save us, but very probably not. ”All I saw was a crowd of starving souls, chewing at their wishes.”
“The World that we Know” is a plea for the World to wake up to the real possibility of extinction, “I wanna green world! I wanna green world! I want it to smell good; I don’t want it to stink like it does at the moment! Open your arms and let it in!.”
“Cake Music” is a satire on the virtues of neo-liberalism, “recycle now and do your bit! Be a match when the fires are lit; move a little closer to the cholera pit!”
“We Shall Be Fables” is a song that lulls the listener, yet reminds us ultimately of our mortality (one of Karen’s recurring lyrical themes), “life is eating us up, we shall be Fables, when the noon-tide beckons and the reaper reckons; we shall be Fables.”
Title-track, “Running in the Gutter” is a love song, poignant yet hopeful that love can still make the difference in all our lives; “you won’t applaud, it has a drive, it’s not a lot till love arrives! Love is not a number, it lives, it dies, running in the gutter, it doesn’t strive”. We can all get there, no matter how far down in the gutter we are.
Release date August 08, 2025. Babal will be launching the album at the Son Of Sardonicus Festival on Saturday August 2nd, the Cellar, Quay Street, Cardigan, SA43 1HU.
Purchase the album on bandcamp: https://babal.bandcamp.com/album/running-in-the-gutter