Manifesto: Album Review
author unknown
Playboy, July 1979
Roxy Music has broken a long silence with Manifesto
(Atco), a record that sounds as if the boys should have kept quiet. The title
song runs on forever: Its lengthy, repetitive introduction is followed by an
extremely long lyric, succeeded by an inability to reach a conclusion. The words
are apparently important - why else would they go on so long? - but they are
very hard to catch. The result is a manifesto that doesn't manifest itself.
Angel Eyes sounds like an outtake from a Beatles session of the Sgt.
Pepper era; it's a good song mucked up by overproduction. Again and again,
Roxy falls into a lanquid, swoony style that just sounds enervated. The record
has its moments, literally. A few bars here, a few bars there, the melody on
this cut, the words on that.
Text copyright 1979 Playboy, used without permission.
With Thanks to Grant Goggans.
