Manuka’s voice is enough to take you down a rabbit hole of imagination. On ‘Cherry Blossom’, the Leeds based musician who’s currently travelling across India, has put together a minimal piece of acoustic driven folk pop that puts you in a state of blissful serenity and immersive imagination. The two part record includes an introductory spoken word piece that sets the context to allow the listener to fully imbibe the subsequent piece that leaves you floating in Manuka’s ethereal atmosphere.
‘Cherry Blossom’ is a song about freedom, about battling true our inner turmoil between our social expectations and our inner soul and feelings. It compels you to introspect, to unravel the aspects of ourselves we choose to keep hidden or that we unconsciously hide. Our insecurities, our cringe attractions, our weird habits, our general quirkiness, all the stuff we don’t feel comfortable sharing because of our own external perception of how others judge us form our walls. But that fear is meaningless, it’s all external and Manuka’s quaint and poignantly minimal depiction makes for wonderfully cathartic listening.