On May 24th 2024, Manchester’s The Speed of Sound released ‘A Cornucopia: Minerva’, the first of three brand new albums which are set to mark the band’s thirty fifth anniversary.

Although the three volumes of music promise a great variety, ‘Minerva’ is actually varied enough in itself, with tracks taking in elements of alternative 60s and 70s sounds, classic 90s indie, and hazy rock that sits somewhere between groove heavy indie and melodic shoegaze.

The promotion for ‘Minerva’ has spawned three video clips which utilise the “visualiser” approach. In many ways, these brightly coloured and wavering graphics could actually enhance the band’s occasionally other-worldly feel. In a slightly obtuse move, however, the band have actually chosen to apply them to a couple of the album’s spikier tracks which offers a really disparate contrast between sound and vision. Maybe this is deliberate, but whatever the decision, they’re here to hopefully bring a few new ears into the fold, and get people even more excited for the rest of the new music that’s on the horizon.

The clips for ‘West Wind’, ‘Trickledown’ and ‘The Great Accelleration’ can be viewed below. If you like those, a full review of ‘A Cornucopia: Minerva’ and stream of the album can be found here.