ALL MUSIC MAGAZINE UK SINGLE OF THE WEEK - THE WOMBATS - X -RATED

Photo credit: Joshua Fairbrother

RELEASE NEW SINGLE ‘X-RATED’

LISTEN/WATCH BELOW

EXTENDED VERSION OF ‘OH! THE OCEAN’

OUT ON 5TH DECEMBER

STREAM HERE

‘OH! THE OCEAN’ WORLDWIDE TOUR STILL UNDERWAY

TICKETS HERE

The Wombats today serve up chaos and charm with their latest single ‘X-Rated’ off the extended version of their sixth studio album, Oh! The Ocean, out via AWAL Recordings on 5th December - listen here. The band are continuing their mammoth worldwide tour in North America this month, before heading back to the UK in December for the second leg of their arena tour, where they’ll be covering cities they didn’t visit earlier this year - tickets available here.

A playful track about love after the honeymoon period, when the spark fades and real life takes over. ‘X-Rated’ blends anxious, introspective lyrics with rhythm-driven and irresistibly catchy melodies, a hallmark style of the Oh! The Ocean that echoes across the record.

Speaking on the new single, Dan says it’s ‘An upbeat summery pop tune about going through rough patches in a long term relationship and trying to figure things out. Vampire Weekend meets Harry Styles on a cruise ship wearing really loud shirts with love hearts on.’

The extended version of Oh! The Ocean will feature the original tracklist plus a collection of new songs, including ones recorded by John Congleton, and offers fans a deeper dive into the sonic world the band built with the album. This summer, the trio brought the record to life on some of the biggest festival stages, delivering standout performances at NOS Alive, Boardmasters (watch here), and Y Not Festival, as well as On The Waterfront - the band's biggest outdoor headline show to date in their hometown of Liverpool.

This month, The Wombats embark on a major North American tour, with dates in San Francisco, Chicago, Dallas, Austin and more. The band will then return to the UK for a huge arena tour from 2nd December, visiting cities not covered in the first leg of their Oh! The Ocean arena tour earlier this year, which saw them play sold-out shows across the country, including London’s O2 (watch here). Full tour listing below.

Since they emerged as leading lights of the late-‘00s indie rock scene with 2007 debut A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, Murph, bassist Tord Øverland Knudsen and drummer Dan Haggis have maintained an incredible upward momentum. 2011’s electro-flecked second album This Modern Glitch made them Top Ten regulars; 2015’s third Glitterbug saw them embraced by the TikTok generation, with ‘Greek Tragedy’ a viral hit several times over. By 2018’s Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life they'd stepped up to arenas and 2022’s Fix Yourself, Not the World consolidated their unstoppable rise with the band’s first Number One album, seeing them reach over 2.5 billion streams. Headline shows at Crystal Palace and The O2 followed amid the band’s biggest touring cycle so far, taking in arenas across the globe and culminating at Reading 2024, where the band headlined a rammed Radio 1 tent overspilling with crowds of 18-24-year-olds that remain their core audience twenty years into their career.

The extended version of Oh! The Ocean is a bold marker in The Wombats’ journey, propelling them further into an exciting new era.

The Wombats - UK Tour Dates

02 December - Edinburgh, Corn Exchange

03 December - Aberdeen, Music Hall

05 December - Newcastle Upon Tyne, England, Utilita Arena

06 December - Birmingham, England, bp pulse LIVE Arena

07 December - Bournemouth, England, Bournemouth International Centre

09 December - Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Olympia Theatre

10 December - Belfast, Northern Ireland, The Telegraph Building

11 December - Blackpool, England, Empress Ballroom