Manchester’s Spangled, charged up from ‘Tramlines’ and primed for ‘Y Not? Festival’, are back with their new single ‘Good Life Better’. Produced by Gareth Nuttal (The K’s, Lottery Winners), the track is released by This Feeling Records.
There’s rock ‘n’ roll like ‘Live Forever’, which is the purist of escapist dreams. Spangled are in the same cosmic sphere but here, they occupy a more intense personal realm.
The shimmer of Shed Seven’s ‘Long Time Dead’ combines with the heartfelt poetry of MOSES which takes them to the precipice of a Knebworth or Reading headline slot. For all those who gazed on at Liam this summer, step aside now, it’s their fucking turn!
As Johnson sings "All of the scars in my soul are gone" and the Soundtrack Of Our Lives guitars chime, their big stage destiny is so tangible you can smell it. It screams hope to all teenagers unable to wrench out their pain, but has the ambition to take dreamers with them too.
In an alternate reality, Nicky Wire would have written the great sloganeering here for Richard McNarama and Youth to produce. The eloquence of DMA’s is given an injection of British aggression via Ben Johnson’s vocal roar whilst Jamie Haliday’s guitars stray from the harrowing goth of The Cure to the grandiose of The Who.
‘Good Life Better’ is more than just a rock ‘n’ roll epic though. It’s a tribute to frontman Johnson’s father who tragically passed away after their triumphant Isle of Wight Festival set in 2021. If Johnson ever tops this vocal, the world is in for something special. The pain he wrenches from his soul is astonishing, but it is the ecstasy and hope he emits which is truly astounding. At his lowest point, Johnson manages to lift others up around him. There can be no consolation for the loss of a parent. We only hope that, knowing one of his last acts alive was to see his son with his best friends doing (and succeeding) what they love to do. No father could wish for more.
*Image courtesy of This Feeling Records