Kingsbury Manx: Let You Down (CD on City Slang)

Band: Kingsbury Manx
Label: City Slang
Title: Let You Down

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Band:Kingsbury Manx
Title:Let You Down
Reviewed By:Andrew Carver
Date Published:17/12/2001

Label:City Slang
Format:CD
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The Kingsbury Manx made a mild splash in 2000 with their first album, a remarkably well-crafted body of slightly folky, slightly psychedelic pop music.The exact same description could be applied to their sophomore effort.

The band’s mild-mannered approach does demand some attention from the listener —but this is easily granted since everything is so pleasant to lend an ear to.

Indeed, the album is so well-crafted, makes so few (actually no) attempts to exceed the talents of its makers that it flirts with anonymity ... on first listen, anyway. The band has toured with Elliot Smith, and one can hear how someone would think they’d be a perfect match. There’s also a wee touch of Beach Boys in the mix and a smattering of Elephant Sixishness at its most sober. A really, really restrained Outrageous Cherry, maybe?

In mood, the music is like a river sparkling with sunlight on top but deceptively deep, there is a sombre, melancholy feel running through the tracks.

Harmonized vocals over strummed and picked acoustic guitar are the raw materials of the Manx sound; the band also boasts a fine drummer, who paces the other musicians with remarkable exactitude and neatly fills in the gaps with brushwork.

Some songs, like 'Sleeping on the Ground' and 'Et tu Kitte' stick to basics (although the latter does boast some fingerpicking — on a banjo, I think) but there is variety here: Pleasant chiming notes reverberate through 'Porchlight', a deep thrum of strings lurking in the background. On the title track there’s some fairly heavy fuzzed, strange psychedelic throb appears on 'Rustic Stairs', and there’s some out-and-out freakout guitar on 'Patterns Shape The Mile'.

In sum, the Manx have produced another album that is pretty instead of beautiful, heartfelt instead of heartrending. It probably won’t be anyone’s favourite album, but I imagine it’ll do the trick most days.

Track Listing:

01) Let you down
02) Porchlight
03) Simplify
04) Et tu kitte
05) Rustic stairs
06) Sleeping on the ground
07) Patterns shape the mile
08) Courtyard waltz
09) Arun
10) New evil
11) Baby you're a dead man
12) Do what you're told

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Let You Down - CD

The Kingsbury Manx - CD

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