I don’t like the taste of the water in the city. A line I can strongly relate to. I was once absolutely hammered on a London bus ranting to my ex girlfriend about how the water is genuinely killing me, to which a man shouted at me as he jumped off at his stop, “fuck off back up North then”.

So yeah, I get it. When lead vocalist and guitarist Adam Hopper writes about longing for the slower, cheaper life in God's own on Leave the South - I completely get it. The song explores how he blames living down South for his life troubles and that escaping back up North will hold the secret ingredient that fixes it all, however, I think we can all agree that a weekend back in the hometown every now and again is enough to reset the dials. Anyway, you’ll most likely catch me blasting this from my tinny speaker, sitting topless in Clapham common drinking cans of Carlsberg shouting at pigeons…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWiK_c_v8FE&ab_channel=Blanketman

Blanketman - Beachbody

Which gracefully leads us into Beach Body. The track makes its entrance just as abrupt as the ailing brit abroad; a topic with so much shared anger behind it. In fact, if you listen close enough, you can hear it telling you to piss off. To be honest, if surfer rock came to the non-existent Manchester beaches, it’d be these fuzzy, energetic melodies of Blanketman. Holding the classic, humorous tone, yet deprecating lyrics about other Brits instead of girls and cocktails on the beach.

National Trust, their debut EP, includes a perfect level of variation. Jeremy Godoy and Ellie-Rose Elliott work great together on the drums and bass - especially in the bouncier tracks like Blue Funk and The Tie.

It’d be unnatural for any record to be released without any reference to the pandemic and the secondary problems that built up around it. National Trust dives into the feelings of anxiety and being trapped, yet focuses on the hope of that wonderful freedom when we’re soon released.

I’m sure it’s not just me that’s starting to hear a lack of enthusiasm and inspiration from new releases of late (for obvious reasons), but Blanketman have delivered a lovely debut here that’s going to foot them nicely as shows start to resume. Certainly a band I’ll be seeing.

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