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Ultimate Painting share politically-charged new single "(I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues"

09 July 2015, 14:41 | Written by Ben Curtis

London duo Ultimate Painting have shared their new single, "(I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues" ahead of the release of their second album next month.

The single, which is released 28 August, is taken from Green Lanes, the exciting follow-up to 2014's widely acclaimed self-titled debut album. The duo, which consists of James Hoare (Veronica Falls) and Jack Cooper (Mazes), revel in lazy, summery, Kinks-esque melody and intricate songwriting - although the content of the track carries a surprisingly angrier message.

Jack Cooper explains:

"The Conservative government that we've had in the UK for the last 5 years have been particularly hard and cruel on the less fortunate members of society. Someone who's found themselves unemployed has to jump through a variety of hoops to receive a jobseeker's allowance; a paltry amount of money to help support themselves. If you're late for your meeting or you fuck up some paperwork, they slap you with a sanction and the tiny amount of money you're getting by on gets taken away. It's straight out of Catch 22. "(I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues" is us trying to make sense of that. Songs that borrow the imagery and rhythms of the railway are as old as the railways themselves... We didn't really set out to fit in with that tradition but I suppose that's where it's at."

Green Lanes is released on August 7th through Trouble In Mind.

Listen to "(I've Got The) Sanctioned Blues" below.

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