Drunk Tank Pink

Following the conclusion of their Songs of Praise Tour, Shame began recording new material for their second studio album. In late January 2020, NME reported that Shame was working on their second studio album, and that recording had been complete.[1]

On 10 September 2020, Shame released the single "Alphabet", marking their first new material in two-and-a-half years.[2] The same day, the band released a corresponding music video for "Alphabet", which features oversized heads in a tinsel pub.[3] The music video was directed by Tegen Williams[4][5] and produced by Kitty Wordsworth.[6]

Two months later, on 18 November 2020, Shame released their second single, "Water in the Well", which correlated with the announcement of Drunk Tank Pink for a 15 January 2021 release date.[7] The music video for the single was directed by Pedro Takahashi.[8] Upon the records release, a loyal fan of shame addressed on twitter that the masters for Drunk Tank Pink were messed up. On release day, the band immediately fixed the issue by providing their fans brand masters for the album.

The album was released during the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. The band anticipates going on a headlining tour in February 2021 called the Socially Distant Tour, which will be played at venues that allow for social distancing. The tour is anticipated to begin 2 February 2021 in Leeds and end on 27 February 2021 in Brighton.

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
AnyDecentMusic?	7.6/10[9]
Metacritic	82/100[10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[11]
Clash	8/10[12]
Consequence of Sound	B+[13]
DIY	[14]
The Guardian	[15]
Mojo	[10]
NME
Paste	7.8/10[16]
Pitchfork	7.6/10[17]
Uncut	[10]

Drunk Tank Pink was met with widespread critical acclaim. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 82, based on 17 reviews.[10]

All tracks are written by Shame[18].