Title: This One's For You
Format Reviewed: MP3
Format Release: 17th February 2014
Reviewed By: Dan Stoten
This third EP from South Wales pop-punk upstarts Manhattan is one of those records you just can't quite figure out. Technically, this should be an EP I love.
However, This One's For You just leaves me completely cold.
It's not that this is necessarily a terrible record: there's nothing offensive to the ears here which makes you want to switch it off. Opener War On The Weekend even has a tempting enough introduction to keep the listener awake, with the track swiftly moving into a fairly generic, fairly gentle pop-rock / pop-punk track, perhaps akin to a more poppy version of early Kids in Glass Houses. There's nothing particularly wrong with the track and does just about give enough to warrant further listening.
You are rewarded for your persistence for about 20 seconds, as Monsoon Season in Machine City opens brilliantly. A full-on punch to the face of pop-punk energy backed up by a big "Let's go!" from lead singer Nick Lane. However, that's where it ends for me: the song declines rapidly following the intro, with Lane's vocals sounding bizarrely off-key at points, and the chorus sounding annoyingly generic, almost lazy. This is far from creative or different; it's playing it safe gone mad.
Lane opens the third track, This One's For You, what what appears to be a below-par Aled Phillips impression. Once again, it descends into total obscurity. It's one of those songs you might listen to the first verse and chorus before moving to the next song: it's slightly dull and just too samey to warrant any further time. Even the short beatdown about two and a quarter minutes in does nothing to rescue this, sounding like a massively tokenistic gesture.
Having thus far in the EP taken heavy, heavy influences from pretty much every local band of the last ten years, Dreams Are For The Dreamers has a slightly more late-90s US pop-punk feel to it. However, once again this is not a feeling which last as the song once again slumps despairingly into the grey river of boredom the rest of the EP is flowing in. By Carpe Diem, the final track, it almost seems as the band had bored themselves: the intro sounds so similar to those on the other four tracks. Either that, or I just forgot what the other intros sounded like....
That, for me, is the problem. There is absolutely nothing which stands out here. It's a lazy EP, choc-full with filler and a hugely wasted opportunity. This one is certainly not for me....
This One's For You is available on 17th February 2014. The band embark on a UK and Europe tour on 13th February in Den Helder, The Netherlands.
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