Album review: Blanket – True Blue

Blanket are an audiophile’s dream, and they live up to their name perhaps more than ever on True Blue. With a softer, more vivacious and woozy sound, the post-rock quartet have conjured up a foaming, lulling ocean of work that you can practically sink into.

They’ve honed their own shoegaze-coated tones across several albums and EPs now, but True Blue feels somewhat lighter than their most recent outlets, 2024’s Ceremonia and 2021’s Modern Escapism. It taps into hope, beauty and relishing small and quiet moments, and does so through vast layered sounds and textures that change, shift and then grow still with bated breath for meatier sonic crashes.

The music does the storytelling, and lyrically this album is intentionally sparse on the majority of its tracks. If anything, Bobby Pook’s vocals bleed into the sounds that cushion him as he swoons, but there are pockets where his words become more forthright; on Hole In My Head, he carries the swagger of Deftones’ Chino Moreno and a tenderness that is all his own.

An undertone of romance underpins True Blue, and it discreetly oozes out. On Bind, you feel it across its slow intro that bursts out in supernova, exploding with drums that skip and dash, while Leaning On You feels like a hazy and heavy waltz. Its titular titan is the final climbing crescendo that grows brighter and more brilliant before slowing to a delicate lullaby right at the end, showing both sides of Blanket’s best offerings.

True Blue feels like a safety net. Sure, the abyss of social media and AI and all other doom and gloom still exists beneath it, but this album steps away from the cynicism explored by this band before. It’s a pocket of bliss that mirrors Blanket’s long journey of building and growing; it requires patience and a stillness. Bask in it.

Verdict: 4/5

For fans of: OVERSIZE, Loathe, Split Chain

True Blue is released on January 16 via Adventure Cat