Manchester Calling boasts all the hallmarks of Heaton’s beautifully bittersweet songwriting – effortlessly catchy melodies allied with an everyman’s biting exasperation at the modern world alongside some truly heartfelt love songs. Produced by long time collaborator John Williams who produced both Housemartins albums and the previous three Paul Heaton and Jacqui Abbott albums - What Have We Become (’14), Wisdom, Laughter and Lines (’15), and Crooked Calypso (’17) - the record was recorded at Blueprint Studios in Salford, Manchester. As is Paul Heaton’s habit the lyrics were written in various locations in North Holland and Belgium while the music was composed in a hotel in Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria and in Limburg An Der Lahn in Germany.

'Foolish Loving Spaces' is the follow-up to Blossoms' 2018 album 'Cool Like You' and features the single 'Your Girlfriend'. The album was produced by the band's consistent and talented team of James Skelly and Rich Turvey at Parr Street Studios in Liverpool. Tom Ogden's increasingly direct lyrical range turns album three into a romantic page-turner of light and shade, while its divergent moods are supplied by Myles Kellock's piano and keyboard lines, careering from urgent stabs of TV game show-theme synth to more classic, rolling notes. The record's multi-instrumental colour and widescreen sound is provided by pedal steel/lead guitarist Josh Dewhurst, while Joe Donovan on drums and Charlie Salt on bass bring fluidly danceable grooves throughout, complemented on occasion by a wall of gospel harmony.