Blanketman - 'Leave The South'

Being a city known for innovation, for doing things differently, it’s frustrating that Manchester’s music scene can often be found resting on its laurels, imitating more than innovating. Look beneath the surface however, past the swaggering wannabe Gallaghers or crooning would be Morrisseys, and there really is whole host of bands doing things differently.

One such band are Blanketman. Though far from a best kept secret (having already garnered support from the likes of CLASH, NME and Radio 1), the four-piece very much swerve the trademark Manchester sound in favour of something more jaunty, angular and altogether much more interesting.

The latest single to be taken from the band’s forthcoming National Trust EP, ‘Leave the South’ isn’t so much the rallying battle cry one might expect. Instead, it seeks to shine a light on the way the grass always seems greener elsewhere, while acting as both “love-letter [to] absent friends and an admission that nothing is perfect” and delivered with Blanketman’s trademark sardonic self-deprecation. 

Three minutes of clattering percussion and loose jangly guitars, it’s scrappy in the best way possible while harbouring both a maturity and an optimism in its lyricism. And though it does little to away from the band’s established aesthetic, their idiosyncrasies already put them held and shoulders above their contemporaries anyway. Upbeat and idiosyncratic, ‘Leave the South’, like Blanketman themselves, is a breath of fresh air in a scene in danger of stagnating. 

Words by Dave Beech

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