Hardened Musical Hypnotism: Manchester Based Shoe-gazers Cruush Release the Impressive ‘Cotton Wool’

Somewhere between a pleasant dream and the depths of a worrying nightmare, Cruush have found a place for their distinctive style of music-making. 

Through their almost hypnotic blend of guitar-driven hitmaking, their music has blessed the walls of various venues across Manchester and London, sweeping the floors with its irreplaceable, hardened beauty. 

Acting as the third single to be released from their five-track EP set to be released on April 12th, 'Cotton Wool‘ is a track that firmly represents the band's poetic style of noise rock. Although perhaps a more refined iteration of their relentless shimmering, faultless in their musical proficiency, and free of all their honest impurities, it is evident that with this band, nothing is left behind. Whether it's lead singer Amber Warren’s gut-wrenching vocals that reappear like screams into a pillow or the clattering warmth of the band's guitar-based soundscape, there is a uniqueness not left masked by overproduction—the makings of a beautiful malfunction. 

An ode to their shoegaze similarities, the lyrics are barbed with complexities of self-reflection. ‘I don’t want to talk/ I just overthink it’  is a lyric that repeats like an honest surrender, the waving of a white flag. The layered guitar parts, typically drawn from the depths of the shoegazing songbook, work to complement the musical tapestry instead of awkwardly muscling themselves further into the mix, and what is left is a grungey pool of neatly arranged musical expertise.

Cruush have evidently sharpened their musical weaponry since the release of their first EP, ‘Wishful Thinker', released in April 2023. With the help of Manchester-based Heist Or Hit (think Eades or Pizza Girl), the band have successfully moulded a sound that pays homage to shoegaze giants SlowDive and Ride but is quite confidently in its own lane. 

With a show at The George Tavern on May 29^th and a headline slot at Gullivers later this year, the band are set to further involve us in their pleasant mould of musical inertia. Cruush are helping to shape the shoegaze/experimental scene exploding into frame in 2024, and their upcoming EP ‘Nice Things Now, All The Time’ is bound to impress in all its dreamlike woe. 

Ewan Bourne

@doubleyellow__

Image: ‘Cotton Wool’ Offical Single Cover