GUY MANNING: TALL STORIES FOR SMALL CHILDREN

This is the debut album by GUY MANNING. Guy Manning has been involved in other bands, but this is his first solo effort. It is so solo that he even include his first name here on the album cover. As far as I know, most of his other albums has been released under the name MANNING. Any good reason for this ? I have been listening to this album and I have a theory. Anyway; that tidbit was a public service to any trivia-quizz wizards out there.

This album, and GUY MANNING's solo career, starts with the brilliant epic The Last Psalm. Clocking in at over fourteen minutes, it winds it's way through various themes. The music is a previously stated epic and monumental. The unearthly beautiful conclusion of the this epic is brilliant and the best piece of music I have so far heard from MANNING. This song is the best song on this album.

After this song, the album nosedive into what I can only call half-acoustic music. It strangely enough gives me some associations to the music of TRACY CHAPMAN. Guy's voice is pretty similar to Tracy's voice. The urgency and tempo of the songs also brings strong associations to Ms. Chapman. The feeling of this being the intimate work of a songwriter & solo-artist is also there. In this respect, there are some references to BOB DYLAN here. As far as I understand it, MANNING was previously classed as Prog Folk before being moved over to Eclectic Prog. Most of the songs on this album is Prog Folk so I can understand that classification although Eclectic is probably the best classification when all ten albums are taken into consideration.

This album is therefore a mix of epic prog (symphonic prog, if you like) and folk rock. The Last Waltz are an excellent track, but the rest is pretty pedestrian stuff. Even The Voyager with it's Turkish/Middle East flavour fails to reach the sky. Some tracks has hints of great ideas, but then falls down again like making bread without yeast. The problem is the quality or even lack of quality on this stuff. But being a debut album, and without knowledge of MANNING's last two albums, I would had said that MANNING is a band I should put on my radar list. In other words; I would check out the next albums. There is most definate things on this album which points in the direction of great things to come. And I do not have a crystal ball. Well, this album being ten years old, I do have a crystal ball of sorts.

Despite of some flaws, this is a good debut album from a man with a pretty huge potential.

3.25 stars.