With the plethora of vibrant colours raining down on you from the vast range of illuminations, alongside a ferocious Irish sea battering its shoreline, the town of Blackpool is a meeting point between the ferocity of nature and the relentless tourism industry. However, through the hazy lights there is an atmospheric, emotive post-rock force steadily on the rise. Coming off the back of their ground breaking debut album Modern Escapism, Blanket make their return with their highly anticipated third album, Ceremonia.
The four piece – made up of Bobby Pook (Vocals / Guitar), Simon Morgan (Guitar / Vocals), Matthew Sheldon (Bass) and Aiden Baldwin (Drums) – revisit their early musical roots whilst continuing their emphatic musical evolution. Influences such as Cave In, HUM, Swervedriver, and Ride come to the fore alongside Blanket’s penchant for Brit-pop melodies. The philosophy for this album being to sound like a indie band but infinitely heavier. With the main objective to capture the excitable and lively vibe of the four of them recording together in the room, the band went into the studio set out to do things differently on Ceremonia. By capturing their songs in a live environment and recording the album song by song allowed the band to truly expand their creative boundaries Blanket were hell bent on achieving their aim.
That they most certainly did. Ceremonia is an energetic yet surprisingly delicate album, packed full of rich, fuzzy atmospheres and a diverse range of lyrical themes that range from a kid in America that made his own nuclear reactor in his Mums back garden – ‘Nuclear Boy Scout’ – to the cathartic emotional releases on tracks such as ‘Porcelain’ and ‘Sea Of Bliss’. So while Ceremonia is eclectic in its influences, it still remains cohesive.
Ceremonia is certainly an album that is greater than the sum of its parts. While each song stands out memorably on its own, the album as a whole has trumped band’s previous work with ease. This could be attributed to the band’s song by song approach to recording. Blanket were able to have the time to give each song what it needed in terms of tone, texture and production depending on its vibe. While that method is nothing new, in this day and age where a lot of things sound the same – because its recorded track by track – Ceremonia is wonderfully refreshing to listen to.
You don’t know what to expect from one track to the next, for example the transition from ‘Ceremonia’ into ‘Porcelain’ feels like stepping into different rooms of the same house, it’s familiar but different. As a result, Blanket have imbued Ceremonia with a delightful, comforting and personal warmth that feels nostalgic as much as it feels new and exciting. In some places it sounds like old school Deftones and in others Superheaven, its this intense mixture of grungy atmospheres that give this album its edge. Ceremonia taps into emotions and memories of those schools days where the sun always seemed to be shining, you had no cares in the world and your whole life revolved around hanging out with your friends and making memories – this is especially true when you listen to ‘Kaleidoscope’.
Blanket have truly excelled themselves on Ceremonia, continuing their exciting evolution into one of the UK’s premier post-rock bands. Ceremonia is a delightful album, showcasing post-rock at its best and packed full of earworms that will linger long after the album has finished.