Boston Manor break through to a new dawn on Datura

Whilst their 2016 debut was built around the same brand of emo fuelled pop-punk as their contemporaries, its 2018 follow-up Welcome to the Neighbourhood was something of a departure. 13 tracks of driving post-hardcore, it’s been impossible to pigeonhole the band since.

That’s no bad thing. Having fully left behind the pop-punk of their roots by third record GLUE, the band’s most recent record Datura seeks to muddy the waters even further. Building on the parallel dystopian landscape established across …Neighbourhood, this is seven tracks that pulls its listeners into a world of darkness and depression: a cloying and claustrophobic trip that’s over in less than 25 minutes.

Short though this may be, it’s nothing if not meticulous. Written over lockdown and recorded in sessions in between time spent on the road. This time spent touring allowed Boston Manor to think thoroughly on each decision, resulting in a record that’s mature, nuanced, and massively impressive.

This is evident almost from its outset. The eponymous opening of "Datura (dusk)" establishing the idea of the sun setting on the dystopian neighbour created back in 2018. It’s moody, haunting. Glitchy electronics adding to the ominous nature of the track that builds towards its conclusion before melting into following track "Floodlights on the Square".

An explosive and cinematic offering, it’s here that the sheer weight and darkness of Datura is established. It’s something that continues throughout the record. "Foxglove" provides a little respite, though only some. The record’s crunchy first single, it’s just as easy to imagine this soundtracking a video game as it is inspiring circle pits in heaving venues.

Elsewhere "Passenger" hits Enter Shikari levels of sheer anthemia, the understated electronics established earlier by this point have reached fever pitch; a pulsating beat only serving to exacerbate the cloying dystopia.

"Shelter from the Rain" provides the record’s first true moment of breathing room. It’s a bold move to use an instrumental interlude as the record’s penultimate track, but by the time the soaring and emotionally charged "Inertia" rears its head, it’s easy to see why it was necessary. Feeling like an early Alexisonfire track, it’s probably the record’s strongest moment, and provides a brief glimmer of hope at the tail end of a bleak but brilliant record.

Perhaps what’s most interesting, is the secret track. Another instrumental offering, it’s just as bleak as everything it proceeds, until it isn’t. Futuristic sci-fi bleeps and crackles that give way to bird song. You’ve made it through the night. You’ve made it through Datura.

Indeed, the band have already hinted at this being the first part of a double album. Though with dawn finally broken, and the weak warmth of sun at last breaking through the gloom, does it mean the second part will be a different aesthetic entirely?