ALBUMS OF THE WEEK

Tom Grennan Evering Road (Insanity Records) Released on Tuesday ★★★★★

The name of the street on which Tom Grennan lived with his expartner lends itself to the title of his second album. It’s a break-up record that finds the Londoner laying bare the whys, whats and wheres as soulfully as a Bedford boy with an Offaly father can. If Only, a banger with shades of Anastacia’s Left Outside Alone, certainly grabs the attention as do Something Better and A Little Bit Of Love. He wouldn’t have needed Irish connections to be influenced by Hozier’s Take Me To Church on the exultant Amen and it’s certainly discernible. In the cycle or more accurately the spinning wheel of a relationship split he sings of betrayal and

‘the people who try to sit on your throne’ on It Hurts, and on Amen how the ‘bed’s too big without someone there to hold me’. Of course he’s on some of the most familiar territory imaginable for a songwriter but is certainly not found wanting.

Blanketman National Trust (PIAS Recordings) Released on Friday ★★★★★

‘Lift off. Lift off. We’ve already taken off!’ Manchester band Blanketman sing on Beach

Body the opening track of their debut mini-album. Over seven tracks, they prove their apparent confidence isn’t misplaced. Although their lyrics are rooted firmly in 2021 they seem to take their musical cues from late-Seventies/early-Eighties post-punk and the better bands of the Britpop era. Beach Body’s frenetic jangle gives way to Leave The South which obviously nods to Lancastrian legends The Fall’s Hit The North. The quartet seem to have supped plenty from The Smiths cup and Joy Division’s jar. There is also strong whiff of Pulp off National Trust and The

Tie could have escaped from an album by XTC. Maybe indie pop will eventually eat itself but Blanketman are not protesting too much.