Myles Manley
Album: More Songs
Label: Trout
Tracks: 6
Website: http://mylesmanley.com/

Having trained as a mathematician, Myles Manley gave up one sort of numbers to concentrate on another type and the release of this six track mini-album, accurately and logically titled "More Songs", would seem to confirm that decision, coming on the back of his self released album, "Greatest Hits" from a few years back.

Born in the UK, but moving to Ireland as a child and having also moved to New York, where he was part of that city's anti-folk scene, he has become a sponge for absorbing influences from around him, before putting it all in a blender and then slowly letting it reform into something new, before throwing it back on the mercy of the whirling blades again.

It means that "More Songs" has a lack of cohesion, but despite that works very well as an album, not just as a collection of songs. Folk, pop, punk and rock all have their place on the album, which features, short sharp songs that weigh in at less than two minutes and rambling epics that exceed ten and if being totally honest, I don't think he gets it right every time. That said there isn't a song amongst the six that lacks points of interest, just that there are times you would like to have him expand on an idea and, perhaps, more crucially, know when something could get away with being trimmed.

"More Songs" both broods and buzzes, its cleverly constructed and has an intriguing quality that makes it easy to come back to and find additional meaning, but like maths when it gets into equations, there are times that it loses me as well. Despite those reservations, Myles Manley and "More Songs" is a release that I'm going to recommend, but it does come with the proviso that you are going to have to do some of the work to meet it somewhere along the way.

Neil King