Your reviewer can't honestly claim much knowledge of 100 BLANKETS before encountering this (debut?) release, save that they're a quintet and hail from the wilds of North West Yorkshire.
He can now safely say he likes what he hears on the basis of these four tracks, though, as 100 BLANKETS certainly have a way of turning new tricks from the ingrained traditions of two guitars, bass and drums.
All four tracks here are worthy of your mindset, though of the four, this writer would probably plump for "Drowning" as the finest, as it rises and falls beautifully around the melody metre of rhythm section DAVID PULLAN and BEN WALBANK. OWEN SAGE and JOHN PARKINSON'S twin guitars are restrained and tasteful until the chorus kicks in and they really take flight.
For me, however, it's STEPHEN GREAVES' vocals that are the real selling point here. His rough, yobby voice forms the missing link between the late, lamented MALCOLM OWEN (RUTS) and SHAUN RYDER and is the perfect counterpoint for the band's appealing washes of sound.
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The other tracks, "Inexperience", "Perpetual Sunset" and - especially - "The World", which has the melodic drive of early REM and benefits from guest JAN SOWMAN'S phantom backing vocals, all club together to cement the positive impression.
100 BLANKETS are gearing up to join the growing cadre of cool new bands capable of (again) re-inventing the rock wheel in the future and, for the time being, show how rewarding grubbing around in the creative margins can be. (8/10)
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