Spangled – That Farm In Dunham

Manchester’s Spangled are back with their new single ‘That Farm In Dunham’. Produced and mixed by Gareth Nuttall, it follows their riotous double a-side ‘Underpants’ and ‘Charlie Hills’. Can it match up?

(*banner image courtesy of Owen Peters Photography)

Last time out, Spangled showed their teeth on the Art Brut via early Blur and Dinghus Khan on their punk rock singles. ‘That Farm In Dunham’ slots back into ‘Good Life Better’ anthem mode. Jamie Halliday’s slow-building guitars are tinged with otherworldly psychedelia which allows frontman Ben Johnson to lay bare his soul.

Despite the change in sonic, Spangled still serve up astute observations and a great narrative lyrically on this tale of unrequited love. Johnson’s vocal is blessed with fragile, boisterous, and angst-ridden moments, the perfect blend for reliving teenage boys’ dreams of being Freddy and Effy but falling closer to Cook’s despair and JJ’s lost sense of reality.

The expansive sound has headline act oozing from its blood. It’s the sound of a band with one hand on their destiny and the pushing at end of the galaxy to make things bigger. This colossal ambition coupled with Johnson’s diary entry honesty lyrically are marrying the excess of rock music to incisive punk for the first time in a generation.

Asking whether ‘That Farm In Dunham’ matches up to the previous double a-side is in fact the wrong question. The two are interloping pieces of art and rock ‘n’ roll serving one another. The double a-side was the eye of the storm, ‘That Farm In Dunham’ is a celestial cloud to recover from it on.

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Spangled - Good Life Better

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