MANIC NIRVANA

Happy Hippy Trails.

Outwardly a return to the Hippy trail, "Manic Nirvana" could possibly be described as "Now and Zen Part 2", as though many ideas from those sessions were left over and brought in. Released on 19th March 90, the album was produced by Mark Stent, and with the same core band members, though brought in more backing vocals with Rob Stride, Laila Cohen, Micky Groome, Carolyn Harding, Jerry Wayne and Siddi Makain Mushkin.

The album contains many sixties psych and pop influences, the popular hit song "Hurtin' Kind", is a straight rocker, "Big Love" and "SSS&Q" in a similar hard rock vein, though with "I Cried", and a very catchy "Nirvana", the eastern sounding "Watching You" and "Tie Dye on the Highway" we go on something of a psyche journey ? Rock festivals, ("what we have in mind is breakfast in bed with 400,000"), bells, bangles, garlands and tie-dies, followed by an excursion into 1961 with the Kenny Dino song "Your ma said you cried in your sleep last night", slow ballad "Anniversary", and the bluesy solo acoustic guitar accompanied "Liars Dance".

Extra tracks on CD are early pop influenced but strangely titled "Oompah (Watery Bint)" (could the "Watery Bint" be same "Lady of the Lake" irreverently refered to in Monty Python's "Holy Grail" epic? ) along with "One love" and "Don't Look Back" in the same vein.

Despite having very little that could be mistaken for prog on it, this is a good hard rock album. This is because the songs are well produced, and were recorded with a high level of excitement and energy. At times, the arrangements seem so lush that they remind me a bit of productions by Todd Rundgren.

Robert Plant's voice is in excellent form on this album, he even comes close to some of those high pitched screams we heard on the Led Zeppelin albums. His lyrics are a bit clumsy, however. Instead of the sexy innuendo of The Lemon Song, his Big Love contains simple, crass lines about the size of a certain body part, and what his woman wants to do with it. And the quoting of Black Dog he uses in Your Ma Said You Cried In Your Sleep Last Night comes off as gratuitous.

Still, lovers of good hard rock, like early Aerosmith, should get some enjoyment out of this album.