Viola Beach debut album posthumously released after tragic Sweden car crash

The self-titled album consists of nine songs including lead single 'Boys That Sing'

Viola Beach, from left: Jack Dakin, River Reeves, Kris Leonard and Tomas Lowe (BBC)

Viola Beach’s debut album has finally been posthumously released after the band were killed in a car crash in Sweden earlier this year.

Indie quartet Kris Leonard, River Reeves, Tomas Lowe and Jack Dakin died with their manager Craig Tarry when their hire car plunged 80ft off a bridge into a canal, 18 miles from Stockholm.

Viola Beach had been championed by BBC Introducing before their untimely deaths and played the popular Reading and Leeds festivals last year. Their first single “Swings & Waterslides” reached number 11 following a social media campaign in the wake of the tragedy, supported by Noel Gallagher, Kasabian and Ian Brown.

The band’s self-titled album is released on their own record label Fuller Beans Records, and consists of nine songs including lead single “Boys That Sing”, which has been given an animated music video.

The families of the musicians said in a statement that releasing the album was the “best way” to celebrate their sons’ lives” “We are tremendously proud of everything the boys achieved in such a short space of time. Craig, Jack, Kris, River and Tom shared a huge passion, talent and dedication to music.This is their legacy and we know deep in our hearts that the boys would want the world to listen to the music they poured everything into.

“This was only the beginning for them and these nine songs were written with every intention to be shared, heard and, most of all, enjoyed. We hope that it brings you as much happiness listening to it as we know it did to them making it.”

River’s brother, Fin Reeves, said the songs on the album were about living life to the full. “That’s the feeling they were trying to get across and that’s what they were doing,” he said. “We have done everything we can to get their creativity and their ideas into it. We have done our best to have it how they would have wanted.”

Sadly, the album is not the one that Viola Beach wanted to put out, with many of the songs reportedly destined for an EP rather than a full release. Nevertheless, NME has praised it as an album that will “leave a smile on your face”, writing in its review that at least fans “have a document of who this band were and what they might have achieved”.

In June, Coldplay performed “Boys That Sing” as part of their Glastonbury headline slot in tribute to “all the bands that don't exist any more”. Frontman Chris Martin said: “We’re going to create Viola Beach’s alternate future for them and let them headline Glastonbury with their song. So Kris and Jack and River and Tomas and their manager Craig, this is what would have maybe been you in 20 years or so and I hope we do this song justice.”

Additional reporting by Press Association