MANNY CHARLTON
''BRAVADO''
2000
72:14
1 Hit The Fan 04:07
2 The Difference 05:50
3 Harvest Moon 03:32
4 She Rox 05:36
5 Classic 04:19
6 Being There 04:54
7 Scene Of The Crime 04:52
8 Legend 04:44
9 Working Man 04:11
10 Stone Crazy 05:16
11 Monkey Nutz 07:27
12 The Hill 04:21
13 Foolish Child 08:01
14 One From The Heart (Demo 1985) 04:58
Manny Charlton/All Instruments & Vocals
Jimmy Williams/Guitar Soloist On 2
REVIEW
By Jason Pohlman, dinosaurrockguitar.com
Another very loooong (sorry) review posted at Manny's site that I thought I would oppress a whole new audience with:
A song by song hit and run breakdown of Manny Charlton's second solo album, Bravado. For those who have been hanging out with Britney Spears and the Backstreet Boys lately (not your fault if you have kids - they're just rebelling), Manny was the lead guitarist, sometimes producer and most prolific songwriter for Nazareth from 1968 through 1990, and the most persistent advocate of hard rock and heavy metal for the group. His new album, played and sung entirely by him except for the expressive guitar solo on "The Difference," illustrates this last quite convincingly.
If you don't like reading much, the sound boils down to this: Take equal parts No Mean City and Hair of the Dog, stir in some Black Sabbath, Tool and slower Metallica and simmer in grungier Neil Youngisms and you won't get this album, but you'll have a concoction that's within shouting distance. The vocals are the surprise of this collection. Except for maybe a part of "This Flight Tonight" in concert, I'm not sure that I had heard the man's singing before. It is a quite accomplished and unique voice, but I would attempt to describe it by telling you to imagine a mixture of a higher pitched Roger Waters, oddly soothing and smoothed out Ozzy Osbourne and less quirky Neil Young. Again, that won't get you there, but it will put you in the neighborhood. Suffice it to say that the voice was a pleasant surprise.
For those with a little more love of reading or a touch of masochism, here's the song-by-song breakdown:
Hit the Fan - A heavy yet energetic kiss-off song, built around a series of inventive riffs, it bears little resemblance to the poppier and more deliberately paced original version from Nazareth's Cinema album. I didn't bother to read the titles before I slapped this sucker on, and it took me until the chorus to realize it was the same song. The drum sound is waaaay to thin here, but otherwise a fine rocker.
The Difference - Oh yeah, this guy was in that band that did "Love Hurts," wasn't he? A stately acoustic ballad with perfectly phrased electric solos. The morosely expressive, slightly buzzing bass prominent in the mix adds perfect counterpoint to the "don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out" lyrics. The bass and sobbing, sighing electric solos, along with Manny's disconsolate Neil Youngish vocal, seem to be saying that the somewhat callous lyrics are only a front and it certainly does make a difference if she walks after all. A triumph. Download it from Manny's site if you don't believe me.
Harvest Moon - A cheerfully grungy put down of a good timing "natural fool." Makes its amusing point then quickly fades out with a classic late 70s Nazareth style screaming guitar solo. This time the slight drums and thin bottom sound exactly right, keeping the touch light and fun. Also downloadable. The Ramones, should they ever reform, should cover this one.
She Rox - Reminds this kid of what might happen if No Mean City era Nazareth joined forces with a newer technological metal band along the lines of Tool. Lecherous bass licks rise out of the murk during the chorus, with thundering drum samples kicking around a howling, ear-bleeding solo to follow. Much more adamantly heavy metal than most of his previous outfit's output and quite modern in its feel.
Classic - "Sweet Home Alabama" meets Manny Charlton's distinctive electric licks. I can hear his more recent home in Texas creeping into his voice in a big way here as he swears his undying love for an old muscle car. God, I miss that old El Camino now! I can smell the beer in the upholstery and hear the 8-track machine eating another Foghat tape...
Being There - Grinding, metallic, snide put down of superstardom and the lack of freedom and shallow destructive hedonism associated with it. Rides one killer riff into the mud for the most part, with another one ripped whole and bloody from Pink Floyd's "Pigs." The drum sound could be much more varied and much heavier here, but otherwise a worthy riff-rocker.
Scene of the Crime - Virtually a mega-heavy remake of "Expect No Mercy," with Manny's voice a close sibling of Ozzy without the hectoring, barking quality. Quite menacing and it makes its pessimistic, apocalyptic point economically. The computerized cymbals here add a nice, eerie touch - perhaps the only point on this album where the digital drums are an improvement over the real thing.
Legend - The only true failure here. Sounds exactly like an outtake from Floyd's Final Cut album. Literally, I mean - the resemblance is uncanny but unnecessary. The vocals are closer than Memorex and could fool Roger Waters' mom if she was still speaking to him, and sadly the overwrought whining anti-religious lyrics are Watersish as well - this particular dead horse has been well flogged by many a more accomplished lyricist in the past, and virtually never done well. The screaming, tightly phrased guitar solo should be pulled out whole and grafted into a deserving song.
Update: Manny says it's not about religion, and on closer inspection, it's not (as if he wouldn't know). I stand corrected but still don't like the song.
Working Man - Speedy and energetic semi-acoustic celebration of the blue collar life, but it's chaff and filler among most of the more worthy company here.
Stone Crazy - 60s flashback! I don't know why, but I think of the Zombies here, maybe because of a slight similarity to "Time of the Season". Believe it or not, it's actually remarkably similar to an old acoustic Funkadelic song from the Maggot Brain era, while the lyrical concerns and vocals are similar to Neil Young's "Rocking in the Free World." Hey, that would be a great cover, Manny! ;-) Incredible acoustic and electric slide here, worthy of Ry Cooder at his best and reminding us that Charlton is among the most accomplished slide players in the world. Peace and love in the face of heroin, Hussein and Littleton.
Monkey Nutz - Heavy, heavy, heavy kid metal. This is the guitar sound us teenaged metal heads in the 70s were fantasizing about but no one had the nerve to produce. Structurally similar to (and about as long as) Nugent's Stranglehold, though with a late - 90s technological feel and defter touch of humor. Not to mention more accomplished and proficient soloing. Where Nugent was enthusiastically competent, Charlton is a true virtuoso with a wider, more educated vocabulary and sense of dynamics. The drum sound again is curiously hollow, however.
The Hill - A brutal update of Page's most destructive noises, with unnervingly soulless multitracked vocals. Howling, hellish guitar leads rise out of the roiling seas of thundering drums and crushing leaden riffing, then come crashing back into the abyss only to thrash around and rise screaming again from the other side. "Judas still lives, he hides on the net. Killers and martyrs who live by the gun make no impressions they just hit and run" are among the spiteful modern horsemen of the apocalypse lyrics so emotionlessly declaimed. Jeez, words just don't do this thing justice - this is absolutely the most brutal and cacophonous slow metal I've run across. A moody masterpiece and worth the price of admission in itself.
Foolish Child - Damn, this is what I always wanted Sabbath to sound like. The vocals are like an Ozzy with more presence and feel and again, without the annoying barking quality. The riffing is a sludge metalhead's dream come true - just riding one pounding, grinding riff into the mud for eight or so minutes that somehow seem too short. We're talking War Pigs or Iron Man with decent lyrics, great vocals and guitar chops second to none. In fact, Clapton should listen to the solos here - it could remind him of what he should be capable of and shame him into decisive action.
One From the Heart – A popish demo also from Nazareth's Cinema period. Kind of perfunctory sounding but remarkably polished and finished sounding for a performance never meant for public consumption. Makes you wish these harmonies had been used in the final version.
All in all, I find this an accomplished effort with some nice new ways of restating some of heavy rock's most eternal verities. I wish Manny would have broken down and allowed a real drummer in the room now and then, and the production has a curiously flat sound at times that I would blame on the computerized recording and mixing. Sometimes, I want to imagine I can hear the tubes and taped down cables in this kind of heavy rock, and wouldn't mind the sound of air moving from the blasts and peals in a real (expensive) studio with screaming stacks of Marshalls. On the other hand, you can only have my Bravado when you pry it from my cold, dead hands. I trust that I have described it well enough that those who like the hard stuff would be moved to check it out. On the other hand, John Denver or Julio Iglesias fans could probably live without it, as could your mother. Stronger praise couldn't be found, I should think...
Three and a half stars out of five. Jason says check it out.
"I didn't do it - nobody saw me do it - you can't prove anything"
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