Yep, O Ye DV Faithful, I\u2019m going to do it again.<\/p>\n
Longtime readers of the Vault know that I am the self-appointed guardian and champion of singer-songwriters, especially those whom the critical establishment has labeled uncool. And let\u2019s face it, if you can find someone with a 35-year career who is considered more uncool than Barry Manilow, let me know.<\/p>\n
The problem is that most music \u201cexperts\u201d mis-classify Manilow. Because he had a string of hits in the late seventies and early eighties, he\u2019s considered a pop artist, and a schlocky one at that. However, he\u2019s not<\/u> a pop artist\u2014if anything, he\u2019s firmly in the genre called variously American Standards, American Songbook, or Pop Standards. You can draw a direct line from Mel Torme and Frank Sinatra to Manilow. <\/p>\n
The other issue is what I call the Pina Colada Effect (named after the ubiquitous Rupert Holmes song from the late seventies). Some artists are remembered for one song that is a) a huge hit, b) not in the style they normally do, and 3) annoying. So we\u2019re going to acknowledge that \u201cCopacabana,\u201d which opens this album, is a disco nightmare whose popularity is completely inexplicable. It\u2019s terrible. We will dock Mr. Manilow a letter grade for this sequin-speckled pile of walrus doodoo and move on.<\/p>\n
Now, for the rest of the album.<\/p>\n
What we have left is an album of gorgeous love songs done in a style somewhere between soft pop and American standards. \u201cA Linda Song\u201d is a heartbreaker about a man who made one fatal omission. \u201cWhere Do I Go From Here?\u201d and \u201cEven Now\u201d are impeccable songs about a love lost. \u201cI Was A Fool (To Let You Go)\u201d has great blues piano, and the wistful bossa nova of \u201cSunrise\u201d closes the album elegantly. Yeah, \u201cCan\u2019t Smile Without You\u201d certainly proves that Manilow wrote commercial jingles before his musical success\u2014but on the whole, this is a solid group of songs, well performed.<\/p>\n
Look, this may not be music for DK or Mot\u00f6rhead fans. But anyone with a soft spot or a liking for American standards-style music should really check this out.<\/p>\n
Just\u2014skip track one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":34380,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6339],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-46217","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-barry-manilow","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46217","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46217"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/46217\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=46217"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=46217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}