Released on Divine Schism, the ‘In the Pocket of Big Sad’ sprawls with terrific and ambitious power.

Manchester band Mumbles are an infectious force, uniting the euphoria of organised musical chaos with open-hearted emotion. Math riffs spool forth from a duelling combination of guitar and bass clarinet while drums rattle along savagely. Live, they make the argument for being one of the most fun bands in the country, in spite of the earnest sentiment and sadness that underlies the music.

This Friday, they release their explosive and affirming new album ‘In the Pocket of Big Sad.’ Sprawling and emotional, the songs range from nineteen seconds to nineteen minutes in length, routinely shifting midstream between open-hearted pleas to swarms of chaos. Opener ‘How Do Happy?’ introduces the form, shapeshifting repeatedly. The Mumbles manifesto is captured in the lyric, “I want to write the kind of songs that you could cry to when you’re overwhelmed in the supermarket.” Their unfiltered emotion has a desperation to it, especially when it drowns in the music, but at moments on this track it feels triumphant, as where heraldic trumpets elevate the chorus. The band certainly do triumph in making the kind of songs you could cry to when you’re overwhelmed in the supermarket – if that’s your thing – so maybe we can take that as cause for celebration.

The band represent a form of musical expressionism, a medium captured by the furiously paced, nineteen-second wail of frustration that is ‘Towards a Universal Theory of Gender.’ That said, among this album’s more densely loaded sections, there are also moments of clarity. The dual lead vocals add some brightness to the mix, particularly shining on jangling duet ‘All Those Feathers,’ which has a touch of later Fire Engines about it. ‘In My Garden’ is slightly reminiscent of the band’s fellow Mancunians The Smiths during its opening, with its imagery of a mundane idyll, and even in its vocal delivery. That is before it spirals into a fresh whirl of energy, broken only briefly when we land on another verse at the eye of the storm.

The album’s finale, ‘Talking to Plants,’ is an epic penultimate song, capturing in its nineteen minutes the range of Mumbles’ timbres. Its chugging rhythms feel quite 90s at points, referencing early math rock and arguably also Pavement and Grandaddy. At the same time, it is coloured by speedier freakouts, almost King Gizzardian in places. All this comes before perhaps the most memorable section of the album, built around a refrain of “I’m glad to be alive” in spite of a number of listed fears and emotions, a defining Mumbles moment. The track is packed with beautiful detail and inspired riffs, sewn together with jam session free-spiritedness but never losing a sense of focus.

Releasing through Oxford’s finest label and promoters, Divine Schism, ‘In the Pocket of Big Sad’ is one of the most powerful and unique albums you will listen to this year. Amid more demanding tracks are moments of accessibility, like the storming ‘JD Sports.’ As a whole, the collection shows the ambition of the band, pushing beyond conventional time signatures and arrangements to anchor the irrepressible spirit of the band.