Night time has a different energy about it, a sense of intrigue or adventure, perhaps, and something about the sky turning indigo heightens every emotion. On album four, Boston Manor seem to have bottled this feeling and doused their music in it, creating a beautifully immersive atmosphere.
Even if it does only barely qualify as an album, at a mere seven (and a bit) tracks long, ‘Datura’ covers a remarkable amount of ground, making their most radical new approaches sound like things they’ve been doing for years.
As far as its sound is concerned, ‘Datura’ adopts a kind of loose three act structure. Its introduction, in the form of the simmering, eerie sort-of title track, is a quietly brave move, especially when the guitar plays a secondary role to its siren-like synths.
A rumbling undercurrent of electronics gives way to a crashing wave of guitars to usher in the sultry Floodlights In The Square, the first in a triumvirate of quintessentially Boston Manor-esque bangers. Later, the thumping one-two of Foxglove and Passenger, both with equally huge choruses, represent the Blackpool quintet at their anthemic peak.
The final act returns to the slow-burning approach of its beginning. While Crocus pairs thrumming guitars with the patter of a drum machine for a deliciously gritty quasi-ballad, the ending (or at least, the advertised one) to this ambitious record isn’t quite as huge as it deserves.
The sentiment of the just-sweet-enough love ballad Inertia might be lovely, but musically, it isn’t quite arresting enough (especially compared to, say, the similarly themed Let The Right One In from last year’s ‘Desperate Times, Desperate Pleasures’). Mostly, however, ‘Datura’ remains a thrillingly consistent record from a thrillingly consistent band determined to push themselves.
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