Blanket is a UK band that really caught my attention with their previous album, Modern Escapism. The record label they are on, Church Road Records sent me am pre-release stream of their new album which I was very thankful for. They had this to say about this new album titled "Ceremonia".
'Ceremonia' is a testament to the band's artistic evolution, seamlessly blending elements of post-rock, shoegaze, and alternative rock. Drawing inspiration from bands such as Cave In, HUM, Swervedriver, and Ride.
The band themselves had this to say about recording the new album.
“We were trying to capture an excitable vibe in the room with the 4 of us jamming, in the past when writing in studios and on laptops it can all change once we're playing those tracks live, so we wanted to capture that. We wanted to capture the music we loved as kids like britpop etc and make it heavier.
I myself have recorded an album and it can be pretty tough recreating that "live energy" on a recording. So I can really sympathize with them when they talk about doing everything in a studio. You can easily lose that rock & roll energy from just sitting on a chair alone recording.
ON TO THE REVIEW
I will start with saying the album cover is awesome. The white sleeved with cutout letters of the album name is really fancy. HOPEFULLY the record comes with a band sticker as I like to stick that on the plastic dust sleeve, which would be nice on account this cover doesn't have the band name on it. The tracks are listed below here but will I just want to point out a few highlights here and there rather than get to detailed about everything in a written review. Your thoughts may differ than mine so I don't want to bog down this review with a bunch of thoughts that some wouldn't agree with as well!
**1. Nuclear Boy Scout
- Ceremonia
- Porcelain
- Kaleidoscope
- Sea Of Bliss (reprise)
- Loom
- The Lucky Ones
- A Sea Of Bliss
- Euphoria
- Final Call**
Right off the bat I can say that this is a much happier sounding album compared to the previous outing. In fact, the sound here so different here that I would not ever know this was the same band if I wasn't looking at the album! I gotta say though, I don't like this sound. The quality of the recording is much better this time around. More crisp and brighter compared to modern escapism that was saturated in reverb. But besides that, after 3 or 4 listen I can't remember any of the tunes off the top of my head. Nothing quite grabs my attention this time around. it's not a terrible album by any stretch but it just doesn't seem to click with me at all. I would probably pop this on my record player once or twice a year but nothing that would go into my "heavy rotation" mix. They are an interesting band and I will look forward to the next release whenever that may be!
Unless you live in UK where they are based out of, seeing them live will be pretty tough! The best we here in the USA can do is order a vinyl record from them. The pink record with roses on it looks damn slick!
BLANKET BANDCAMP