Not even a year on from their last EP, Boston Manor is back with their fourth full-length album, Datura (Sharptone Records). Over the past five years, the band has made a name for themselves by upping the ante with each release. Anticipation is high for Datura to see what the quintet can create next, with news of the band delving deeper into concept albums for the release, this is raised even further.

From the get-go of the first track, you can instantly see the universe in which Boston Manor are wanting to create, Carpenter-esq moody synths fill the area. Beginning with a minimalistic drum board beat accompanied by haunting effects around it. This tone is slowly built up as if from a horror film, the beat picking up pace as once the effects take a more corporeal form in static noise & glitchy sequences. Just as this is built up, the moment fades away into the dark enticing its audience to stay to see what’s to come.

Whilst this intro song could be seen as diving too far into the moody aesthetics and missing the core elements of making hits, don’t be alarmed as Boston Manor have got your back on this in swathes. Just as opening track ‘Datura (Dusk)’ settles, the quintet launch themselves into the anthemic track: ‘Floodlights in the Square’ where vocalist Henry Cox shows off his catchy vocal hooks by the dozen. Musically similar to their Desperate Times EP, the track works almost as a second introduction to the album showing the poppier side of the band. 

This then leads into previously released single ‘Foxglove’ displaying one of the bands best choruses to date. Upbeat rhythms filled in with distorted guitars akin to their previous work in Welcome To The Neighbourhood. If audiences aren’t screaming back the lyrics “These fucking problems keep following me, maybe I’m the problem, maybe it’s me” right back at the band live, the world has truly gone mad.

What really makes this album stand out compared to their previous releases, is the final two tracks. These show the band go back head-first into the moody synth vibes of ‘Datura (Dusk)’. Working as an interlude to the final piece, ‘Shelter from the Rain’ is a beautifully written instrumental track which sounds like it belongs out of Blade Runner, the synth futuristic sounds contrast with the more diegetic sound of a bustling city. 

This fades into the six-minute track ‘Inertia’, bringing a whole new somber tone to the record. The song brings out a side of the band that hasn’t really been shown since their 2016 release, Be Nothing. A track that is perfect to be listened to while staring out your window on a rainy day. As this fades away, an instrumental side of the song can be heard, bringing together the new elements of Datura in fusion with their origins. 

Datura as a whole shows the band looking more deeply into the experimental side of their genre that none of their peers can say they have done. The influences outside their spheres in the likes of John Carpenter and film soundtracks and interpolating it into their own sound is truly inspired. With this added depth only a year on from their last EP, as cliche as it sounds, the sky’s the limit for what this band can create.

Buy the album here: https://bfan.link/datura

9 / 10

CHARLIE HILL