Manningtree’s body positive post punk 8-piece return with a new single that confronts our prejudices about beauty standards for men.

Dido producer David Pye lends his coffee table pop production gloss to a song about how we as a society react to a new hat. Is there a message about modern masculinity, hair loss paranoia and status anxiety? Or is the lyrical protagonist using the hat to disguise the external symptoms of a head injury that has damaged the language centre of his brain, leaving him only able to utter the simplest phrases in a repetitive loop? As with most Dingus Khan songs, it’s probably best not to overthink it.

The release of the single was almost overshadowed by controversy concerning the cover art, after the band uploaded a tasteful soft-focus glamour shot of bassist Tom Armstrong to digital distributor Tunecore, never imagining a sexy image of a middle-aged man in his pants would be rejected as “too explicit for (them) to distribute”.

Naturally, the band’s first response was to take to social media to mine the situation for free publicity. Many fans were troubled by what they perceived as double standards. Drew from Essex was enraged, writing, "So, this (the cover of Country Life) was OK for Roxy Music, but apparently not Tom’s Y fronts? It’s a clear case of discrimination based on the quality of the physique in question."

The controversy went viral when the Colchester Gazette deemed the story sufficiently newsworthy to dispatch reporter George King to obtain a statement from Tunecore. The distributor denied the artwork was too explicit. Instead, they claimed it was not explicit enough. The cover had been rejected because Tom’s pants were out of focus. They demanded a less blurry image of Tom in his underwear for Spotify users to enjoy.

Unfortunately, the original photo was a still from a video filmed in 2019, when Tom was at peak physical fitness. Four years of self-neglect later, he felt reluctant to remove his clothes, even for a good cause, such as being sexually objectified for the advancement of the band’s career. So, Dingus Khan turned to their fans for help, to provide new artwork for the single.

Artist Rob Gore’s erotic rendering of Tom modelling his trademark hotpants and Stetson now adorns the cover. Rob impressed the band with his anatomical accuracy and his inclusive vision of male beauty. Tom and his family are now keen to put the whole episode behind them.