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Manfred Mann's Earth Band - Criminal Tango CD (album) cover

CRIMINAL TANGO

Manfred Mann's Earth Band

 

Eclectic Prog

2.52 | 84 ratings

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ZowieZiggy
Prog Reviewer
2 stars This album is seriously AOR/pop oriented.

The hey (and prog) days are well over of course, but the band still delivers some (very scarce) pleasant music ("Going Underground") while the worse is mostly present unfortunately ("Killer On The Loose" amongst many others).

I have a special kindness for "Do Anything I Wanna Do" from the Rods. I saw the band (Eddie & The Hot Rods I mean) live in London in February 1977 (I hope I go to heaven.). Ultravox! was the supporting act btw. But I can't really cope with this mellow and popish version. Of course, it is on par with the rest of this album which is not great I'm afraid.

I wonder why the lead singer tries to emulate Springsteen (like in "Who Are The Mystery Kids"). It is difficult for me to appreciate all these synthetic sounds, artificial beats and uniform tone all over again.

At the end of the day, it is a typical album of the eighties. But while a band like Eurythmics was excellent in this style, this album is far from reaching their quality. Here & there some nice solo break (like the guitar one during "You Got Me Right Through The Heart") but this is hardly a consolation.

The heavy "Bulldog" is just above average as well as "Crossfire". A way to save this album from the one star rating.

ZowieZiggy | 2/5 |

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