The Wombats

The Wombats, a British indie rock trio, craft propulsive pop steeped in post-punk and new wave textures, delivered through a cheeky perspective laced with satirical bite. Their breakthrough arrived via the 2007 debut album A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, which climbed into the U.K. Top 20. Subsequent releases demonstrated ongoing refinement, pairing commercial traction with crafted production values on 2011's This Modern Glitch, 2015's Glitterbug, and 2018's Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, each of which reached the U.K. albums chart's Top Five. Their fifth studio album, Fix Yourself, Not the World, topped the U.K. chart in 2022, while "Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come" introduced the forthcoming 2025 set Oh! The Ocean.

The group came together in Liverpool in 2003 during the members' studies at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, featuring vocalist/guitarist Matthew Murphy, drummer Dan Haggis, and Norwegian-born bassist Tord Øverland-Knudsen. Their first single, the Japan-only "Girls, Boys and Marsupials," surfaced in 2006, followed by additional singles ahead of A Guide to Love, Loss & Desperation, which peaked at number 11 on the U.K. album chart. The Wombats EP appeared on Bright Antenna the next year.

This Modern Glitch, their second full-length, emerged in 2011 under the guidance of modern rock figures Eric Valentine, Butch Walker, and Jacknife Lee, and contained the Top 40 single "Tokyo (Vampires & Wolves)." Glitterbug followed in 2015 as their third album, emphasizing synth elements through production by Mark Crew and spotlighting the singles "Greek Tragedy" and "Give Me a Try." The release achieved strong commercial results in the U.K. and Australia while marking the band's initial appearance on U.S. charts.

"Turn," issued in December 2017, led into the fourth album Beautiful People Will Ruin Your Life, released in 2018. Mark Crew (Bastille, Rationale) and Catherine Marks (the Killers, Wolf Alice) handled production, with further singles "Lemon to a Knife Fight" and "Cheetah Tongue" included; the set reached number three in the U.K. and entered the Billboard 200. An expanded edition arrived in August 2018, adding the single "Bee-Sting" alongside the track "Oceans" and an acoustic rendition of "Lethal Combination."

Matthew Murphy then paused band activities for his solo endeavor Love Fame Tragedy, issuing Wherever I Go, I Want to Leave in 2020. The Wombats resurfaced in May 2021 with "Method to the Madness," the opening release from Fix Yourself, Not the World. Jacknife Lee joined Mike Crossey, Gabe Simon, and additional collaborators on production for the January 2022 album, which led the U.K. Albums chart and preceded the November arrival of the Is This What It Feels Like to Feel Like This? EP. "Sorry I'm Late, I Didn't Want to Come," released in October 2024, served as the initial single from their sixth studio album, Oh! The Ocean.