Always Ascending

Following the release of Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action, the band's fourth studio album, in August 2013, the band collaborated with American rock band Sparks under the name FFS. They released a self-titled album in July 2015 and briefly toured.[1] In July 2016, it was announced that Nick McCarthy, one of the band's founding members, was taking a break from the band to spend more time with family and focusing on side projects.[2] It was announced in May 2017 that two new members had joined the band; Dino Bardot, former guitarist for Scottish indie rock band 1990s, and music producer Julian Corrie.[3] Corrie joined the band for the recording sessions of the album, while Bardot joined after recording was completed.[4]

The band recorded the album at Motorbass Studios in Paris and RAK Studios in London.[5] They previously used RAK Studios to record FFS in late 2014.[6][7] For Always Ascending, they worked alongside Philippe Zdar, one-half of French synthpop duo Cassius and frequent collaborator with French indie pop band Phoenix, on the album.[5]

The music of Always Ascending has been described as indie rock, dance-punk, and new wave, all genres that the band have been previously associated with.[8][9][10]

Prior to the announcement of the album, the band shared a short snippet of the title track on social media platforms on 23 October 2017.[11] On 25 October, the band released the title track as the album's lead single. Alongside the release was the reveal of the album's title, artwork, and track listing. They also released dates for a world tour, starting in October 2017 and ending in May 2018.[12][13] A music video for the title track, directed by AB/CD/CD, was released on 4 December.[14] On 8 January 2018, "Feel the Love Go" was premiered on Zane Lowe's radio show on Beats 1. A music video was also released on the same day and made exclusive to the Apple Music service.[15] The video was directed by Diane Martel,[15] who had previously directed the band's music videos for "Do You Want To" and "Evil Eye".[16] On 25 January, "Lazy Boy" was released as a single.[17]

The album was released on physical and digital formats on 9 February 2018 by the Domino Recording Company. It was made available on 12" vinyl, CD, and a limited edition cassette.[18] A bundle was also made available which included a 180 gram blue and white marble-colored vinyl and other special merchandise items, limited to 1,500 copies.[19] The Japanese CD edition of the album was released through Hostess Entertainment and featured the band's non-album single "Demagogue" (2016) as a bonus track.[20]

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	6.7/10[21]
Metacritic	72/100[22]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[23]
The A.V. Club	B–[24]
The Guardian	[25]
The Independent	[26]
Mojo	[27]
NME	[28]
Pitchfork	6.9/10[29]
Rolling Stone	[30]
Slant Magazine	[9]
Under the Radar	[31]

Always Ascending received generally positive reviews from critics. On review aggregator site Metacritic, the album holds an average critic score of 72/100, based on 26 reviews.[22] At the online review aggregator Any Decent Music?, the album received an average critic score of 6.7/10, based on 31 reviews.[21]

All tracks are written by Julian Corrie, Bob Hardy, Alex Kapranos, and Paul Thomson.

All personnel adapted from liner notes.[34]