MANFRED MANN '06: 2006

Well,when I read M.M. has a new album,my expectations were not that high,since his last REALLY good album was 30 years ago.But what the hell I have to listen here to?Nothing better than a fairly good commercial album.Tracks 1 to 4 I don't want to tell much about,the short appearence of this guy Thomas D. in the first track turned me off already.One fact is really irritating that each track is faded out.Track 5 is the first one which is rather good with some sax playing.Track 6 is starting well,but rather short and again.....faded out.It seams the intention is there to make really good music,but unfortunately not accomplished due to commercial demands.Track 7 again would be quite a good track and recalls a bit the "good old days",nice background choir and good keyboards,but altogether it remains the impression of listening to a sample (fading out!).Let's forget Track 8.Track 9 is a quite nice quiet one with more spoken lyrics (McCalla?) and nice acoustic guitar, but of course.....faded. Track 10 with Thompson on vocals could be a typical 80's Earthband song. Instead in Track 11 something more un-typical for Earthband, Gregorian choirs, one could say Enigma in a bit more rocking vein. Track 12 is the worst I heard from him since a long time. .Some cover version of a classical theme with really bad female vocals and once again Thomas D. The last track is not really a reward for the previous one.

As a summary I have to say apart from a few hopeful moments it's the worst album of M.M. I've heard since his poppy 60's era. I'm sorry for the really good musicians acting on this record, because they are really performing well but the final output is rather poor and quite commercial. 2 stars is really the maximum I can give.

Can the Mann do better without his Earth Band? This is the main question before one listens to this album.

Several albums of the band ranged from good (the majority of his earlier output) to excellent ("Solar Fire"). But these were produced ages ago. The evolution of the band towards a pure pop oriented music couldn't please an old fan as I am.

On this album, the Mann makes some illusion with the good opening track "Demons And Dragons". Because when you listen this album further on, those terrible beats we have been used to during "Masque" or to a lesser extent "Soft Vengeance" are back again.

The poorest track probably being "Down In Mexico". Only good to practice the press nextT exercise. This album features a lot of uninspired and boring music like the instrumental "Happenstance" vaguely Oriental influenced.

This soul influence is also too dominant for my taste. "The History Of Sexual Jealousy" sounds more as a weak Motown track of the seventies than anything else. I'm afraid that this record is just the continuation of a long downhill initiated a loooooong time ago.

The Mann (with or without his band) has been very discreet in terms of album releases. This is his third effort in seventeen years. And I wonder who could be interested in such an album in the third millennium.

All of a sudden, a brilliant instrumental track falls like a gift. "Black Eyes" is a superb melody and the guitar play is just splendid. Unfortunately (as it often happens on poor albums) this great moment is rather short.

Soul / funky music covers the majority of the tracks of this album ("Mars", "Get Out Of This") and I have never been able to digest these genres. And the quality of the song writing also leaves much to be desired.

A charming song as "Frog" comes as a relief. A very nice and gentle story. The third good number so far. Touching, emotional. Things are also on the good side with the pop "Two Friends". At least the global soul mood has gone and the keyboards solo is rather well executed.

The heavy beat of "Monkman" is compensated with some church choir vocals (hence the title). Not great but an original mix. Actually, the album gets better towards the end even if, again, another good instrumental is waaaaay too short ("Marche Slave").

As a contradiction, the Mann gets back to some sort of mix between Motown and rap style. Independent Woman is just terrible my prog friends.

Two stars is my rating. Some average to good tracks prevents me to use the one star rating, but be aware that half of this album is pretty much unbearable. The best thing to do is to get his early albums (up to The Roaring Silence.

Manfred Mann is trying to find his place in new century music market. Very first song shows it: soul-pop-rock song with even some rap-vocals. Not very listenable. Second song is 1:22 minutes (!) long instrumental. Sounds as promo version of longer song.

Song No. 3 is Lieber/Stollier production hit Down In Mexico. Musical part sounds as Tom Jones old song scented with few melodies from "Nightingales and Bombers". I'm serious!

Happenstance is uninspired electric reggy - blues.Happily, instrumental. The History of Sexual Jealousy is not very professional urban/r'n'b clone with chorals. I 'm serious again!

Black Eyes can make me laugh. Classic Russian romance song ( I can name few thousand version of it were sung) is transferred to melodic pop-rock instrumental. Mars is kind of MM self parody.

Eights song is pop-soul with pretension to be a hit. Great song's name, however ( Get Me Out Of This).Frog is acoustic naive ballade with Mann's spoken vocals.

Two Friends sound as previous ballade just with a bit faster tempo and with addition of Hammond and heavy guitar solos ( melody wasn't changed, mostly because there was no melody to be changed).

Monkman uses Enigma's chorals just from very beginning. Enigma's few electronic beats are useable there as well. Marché, Slave is extra-short instrumental (1:42) mixing few simple electronic sounds with Middle East tune. Independent Woman is pop song with female vocals ( understandable, according to song's name) and some low key electric keys and rap ( in German as well).

Wait, wait, still not the end - there are bonus track ( didn't mentioned on cover).Still want to know what this song is about?

Total disaster.

Manfred Mann managed a put together a surprisingly solid swan-song to the Earth Band's recording career with '2006', an album released in 2004 but post-dated by Mann as an attempt to help keep the music relevant a little longer than it might have otherwise. That little marketing trick failed as the album didn't chart anywhere, but the music, while not in the same league as the band's strongest work from the 70s, is still pretty decent.

Most of the songs here were written by Mann himself, something of a departure from earlier Earth Band albums that were always known for the liberal use of both cover and commissioned tunes. Mann does include a handful of classical-inspired tracks such as "Independent Woman" and the eerie instrumental "Marche Slave" whose keyboard riffs borrow from Tchaikovsky, and the reprise of the Holst-inspired "Mars" from the band's 'Solar Fire' days.

But there are also some interesting original tracks as well as hybrids where Mann takes one or more songs from other artists and weaves something new of his own. Sort of a prog-rock version of sampling I suppose, and Mann even includes a bit of soft rapping on several tracks courtesy the European rap artist Thomas D. The opening "Demons and Dragons" for example takes the basic structure of Super Furry Animals' 1997 single "Demons", mixes in some Paddy McAloon (Prefab Sprout) lyrics and Thomas D smooth spoken-word crooning to yield a legitimate 21st century tune. Like I said, not the sort of thing you normally expect from Manfred Mann's Earth Band but at least the boys are trying for the first time in quite a while. The album closes on a reprise version of the same Super Furry Animals/Mann composition.

Most of the rest of the album goes on like this, Mann mixing other people's material with his own and yielding instrumentally-dominated, moody and somewhat postured music that is nonetheless modern-sounding, creative and quite listenable. The Earth Band had managed to lower the bar on their previous half-dozen albums to the point where this one sounds comparatively good, so that's something anyway.

There are a couple duds on the record that detract but don't manage to sink it completely. Mann either legitimately likes the avant-weirdness of Momus or at least feels like he should pretend to, demonstrated by his inclusion of yet another variation on that artist's "The History of Sexual Jealousy". I personally find his music quite boring, but to each his own. It doesn't fit here any more than it did on 'Soft Vengeance' though. And the Coasters cover "Down in Mexico" would have been better left to a legitimate house or R&B band. Even though Mann includes Thomas D's vocals here the band doesn't quite manage to bring authenticity to the sampling.

Otherwise this is arguably the best thing Manfred Mann's Earth Band recorded since 'Angel Station' way back in the 70s. Props to Mann for not giving up on himself. I can't quite go to four stars since in the end this is more about arranging and interpreting other people's music than it is about original composition, but three stars seem fair and indicate this one should at least be checked out if you are anything more than a casual Earth Band fan.

peace