Boston ManorDatura

Courtesy of Travis Barker’s cultural renaissance and the prominence of artists like Machine Gun Kelly and Yungblud, we are currently in the midst of a pop-punk revival.

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As the scene’s comeback continues to generate momentum, releases are just as rapidly starting to bleed into one another. In place of innovative songwriting, artists are opting to rely on repackaging nostalgia for the fans of today who are pining to relive the music’s best years from the early 00’s. 

On their fourth studio album Datura, Boston Manor demonstrate that their ambitions lie beyond simply recreating these past glories. With each subsequent release, the group have transitioned farther into the realm of the experimental, preferring to operate on the darker fringes of alternative music. The culmination of these evolutionary steps has resulted in Boston Manor reaching a creative pinnacle on Datura; a diverse and sophisticated record that is both emotionally evocative and sonically interesting. 

It takes audacity to move against the masses, but records like Boston Manor’s Datura prove that it is all but worth it.

The wintry title-track layers ethereal vocals over a minimalist arrangement of guitar and textured electronics, before breaking into rapture on Floodlights On The Square. The vocals sound panicked, and the instrumentation feels foreboding; a sentiment that is pervasive throughout the entire record. Foxglove is brimming with anxious energy, embellished through the soaring melodic phrases on Passenger. The aesthetics of the record hint at notions of nighttime and coldness, and these are elucidated in the wondrous soundscape crafted for Shelter From The Rain. Industrial flourishes colour Crocus, before the melancholic Inertia finishes the record at its emotional peak. It takes audacity to move against the masses, but records like Boston Manor’s Datura prove that it is all but worth it.

STANDOUT TRACKS: Floodlights On The Square, Passenger, Inertia
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