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Manafon Image
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 10 Critic Reviews What's this?

User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 6 Ratings

  • Summary: The latest solo album for the ex-Japan band member features work with musicians from the United Kingdom, Austria, and Japan.

Top Track

Small Metal Gods
It's the farthest place I've ever been It's a new frontier for me And you balance things Like you wouldn't believe When you should just let things... See the rest of the song lyrics
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 6 out of 10
  2. Negative: 0 out of 10
  1. Uncut
    100
    Here, his luxurious voice, weathered and warm, sits atop intuitive improvations from the likes of Christian Fennesz and Evan Parker. [Nov 2009, p.106]
  2. Manafon is a quiet yet forceful stunner, a recording that, if heard, is literally unforgettable.
  3. However central Sylvian’s bleak commentary, the weight and suggestiveness of this record gives it a sense of unpredictability, possibility, almost an openness beyond itself. It’s absolutely superb.
  4. Sylvian is front-and-center on every song, which is good because he provides the only rhythmic and melodic stability, as the instrumentals dart and scratch and feedback around him.
  5. Fans of David Sylvian will doubtless appreciate the elegant compositions and Sylvian's self-indulgent but soulful insights, but there is little to entertain the casual listener who may be better off back cataloguing Tom Waits and Nick Drake and realizing that they are not the same thing.
  6. Think Scott Walker punching a side of beef, and know that here's another who's wandered off the path of teen pop success to find a world that's far more interesting (if far from easy listening).
  7. While no one could accuse Sylvian of playing it safe, the exercises that make up Manafon are neither experimental nor aesthetically pleasing enough for me to recommend this album.

See all 10 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of
  2. Mixed: 0 out of
  3. Negative: 0 out of

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