Search - Adam Ant :: Manners & Physique

Wouldn't be a reissue if they didn't get at least one thing

Daniel W. Kelly | Long Island, NY United States | 09/01/2009

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It is so great to have several labels that are dedicated to reissuing classic albums by 80s artists with plenty of bonus tracks, but inevitably, almost every release falls short of giving fans everything they want (and everything that deserves to be brought into the digital age). The good news here is that BOTH remixes from the "Room at the Top" 12" are present. The bad news--instead of giving us BOTH remixes of Rough Stuff that were done back in the day, they give us an EDIT of the remix already on here! The "alternate mix" of this track is actually the one I prefer (it was the b-side to the original promo 12"). Guess it was just too obscure for the label to even realize it existed? And of course, those who never knew the promo only mix existed wouldn't even know what they were missing."

Radical metamorphosis

A. Walters | Seattle | 04/08/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Manners & Physique" has always been one of my favorite albums from Adam Ant. It was my first album of his I got and sports a nice, slick late 80's production moving Adam forward a little closer to hip hop than his hard rocking previous effort, "Vive Le Rock".



One thing I must say about Adam is really has guts. This is a guy who has consistently reinvented himself by making a different record every time which is something most artists don't dare to do. "Manners and Physique" employs a drum machine, much less guitar and more of a synthpop/electronic sound. Rockers will hate this album in the same way they hated Van Halen's "Jump" where this album shows no signs of Adam's punk oriented work and guitars are replaced with synthisizers and drum machines.

At this point, Adam has experimented with pretty much everything:

Punk

Rockabilly

Rap

Swing

Hard Rock

Pop

and now bringing him to hop hop.



Adam Ant in some ways kind of reminds me of Bowie. Their music is much different but it won't surprise anyone to see Bowie as Ziggy Stardust or The Thin White Duke. We've seen Adam mostly as a rocker, or a new waver with bizarre style which more than likely set some trends in the 80's but here we see a more corporate, cleaned up and sober looking Adam compared to his early 80's image. What's funny is this is a man who never drank or did drugs in the 80's, as clean and sober as they come regardless of what people said about him back then.



This release sports more positive lyrics. My mom bought this album for me when I was a kid. It's pretty much safe for anyone to listen to. Nothing weird, no mentioning of sex or disease or anything else he used to talk about on his records. The album produced a hit with "Room at the Top" but that's about it. I agree with what someone said on here, if this was released in '87 or so, the album probably would have put out more hits but who cares. It's still a great album and a must have for any fan. I can't remember what the critics said about this album but he was blamed for some of the same things Gary Numan was accused of back then which was sounding too much like Prince. I believe Prince's bass was on this album and has a strong Minneapolis pop type of production. Yeah, it does kind of sound like Prince but it's a dance album and I like Prince and I like dance albums so I will probably always enjoy this record.



It kind of reminds me of modern hip hop meets mid 80's Prince without the sexually driven lyrics which are probably the reason why the album wasn't a huge success. In 1989 rap was becoming more prominent on dance floors where this wasn't quite as cutting edge as Rob Base or Information Society who was tearing up the floors back then. This album didn't quite stand up to that stuff but overall, it's a good album. Nothing weird, no guitars, no screaming, just good, easy on the ears top 40 pop. If you can get your hands on this release, by all means.....get it. It's one of the few albums that was well produced and doesn't need remastering. Think mid-80's Human League and how they sounded with their song "Human". Kind of top 40, kind of contemporary fused with pop and hip hop. That's what this is.

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