Manu - L'Horizon
Broaden your horizons
Back to the story where it stopped with La Vérité in 2015. Meanwhile, former Dolly singer gave herself a treat when she covered old tracks in harp+cello version (Entre Deux Eaux, 2018). Let’s notice by the way that the very good eponymous song "Entre Deux Eaux" followed the opposite direction and is now entitled to its electric version. If Emmanuelle Monet, alias Manu, comes back to familiar ground with L'Horizon, she kept from the adventure the taste of diversity. Enriched by her Japanese phase too, she starts Esperanto now ("Lia Progreso").
Let’s do a tour d'Horizon.
The surprise comes from a combination of electro and videogame music type ("Play", "Kid", "76 Points") which reminds of Prodigy universe, except the big sound. But this is temporary only, since you can also find for instance a drum and bass rhythm section which apes the old Cure ("Tout Est Parfait").
The small shortcoming – which is sorry – is the sound and production work, which lacks scope and power. Especially the rock tracks (the best in my opinion), which don’t kick you as they should. I might well pump up the volume, I only manage to make the car windows vibrate. And actually that may be the point where the absence of Nikko Bonnière (Dolly and Manu guitarist and producer) is the most prejudicial.
Few lyrics, they are rather evocative words than built stories. The vocals by the way don’t have a dominant place compared to the instruments, and the voice is often passed through an effect filter. But no Auto-Tune, don’t worry!
Whereas lots of singers usually use "Lalala"’s, Manu does a song title of it. In this song she invites rapper Yaz to express himself over a heavy rock background.
So the whole of the album is rock, but it includes a lot of programming too and often falls into experimental (harebrained "La Sonate").
Finally, those who’d like some sweetness can enjoy "Moments Doux" and the bittersweet "À Partir".
Now you’re ready to keep the story up, the beautiful story of Manu. Within 2 years, within 5 years or within 10 years.
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A one-hour-long album is becoming very rare nowadays. You’ve got to damn love Manu to love this album from A to Z!
A particularity of L'Horizon is the inserted short transition tracks. I can count 7 of these commas, which last from a few seconds ("Intro") to 1:45 ("Kiara Song"), and which sound a bit like a movie soundtrack. With crickets... hey, like William Z Villain! Some small, and sometimes nice, breathing breaks between bulkier pieces.
But when you listen again the dividing line is not that clear, for some pieces of more that 2 minutes can also be seen as transitions which are just a little more developed ("Nino"), and some song-tracks include themselves a transition inside, either at the beginning, or at the end (like the very Doors organ final in "Entre Deux Eaux"). Or even in the middle! -
Mordre la Poussière
M'aime Pas en Rêve
Regarde -
76 Points
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The sentence
“Gaming is not a crime” ("Play")
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herwww.manu-friends.com (204 Hits)
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...And now, listen!
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Created26 October 2019
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