Tim Barry - Manchester
Rating
RIYL
Chuck RaganFake Problems
Sundowner
Avail
Release Date
11/04/2008
Label
Suburban HomeTracklist
1. Texas Cops2. On and On
3. South Hill
4. 5 Twenty 5
5. This November
6. Sagacity Gone
7. Ronnie Song
8. C.R.F. (Retired)
9. Tacoma
10. Tile Work
11. 222
12. Raised and Grown
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Ah, the solo side project, a longtime standby of just about any vocalist with unique (or at least strong) vocal abilities and whose bread and butter band has built up a large enough following that fans will recognize their name and instantly feel compelled to pick up the album and force themselves to enjoy the music, regardless of how unlike it is to what they’re used to hearing from said artist. Usually these are a one-off, and that’s usually because they’re just not very good.
Thankfully then that Tim Barry, of venerable (and now largely defunct) punk stalwarts Avail has bucked both of these trends. His sophomore effort Manchester is an impressively smooth blend of Barry’s whiskey-tempered vocals and your standard down south instrumentation; think weathered guitars and plunking banjos. Barry’s ole boy attitude is what drives the album, and if he weren’t such a skilled and genuine songwriter, Manchester would be a disaster. Evidence of this is in the opening track, the fast-paced “Texas Cops,” where in setting the tone of the album, Barry seems to be forcefully asserting his roots as if he has something to prove, rather than simply letting this understanding of his credentials flow naturally through his otherwise deft songwriting. The track is one of few missteps the album takes, as the rest of the songs present a more subtle rendition of this outlaw folk sound. It’s just unfortunate the song was chosen as the intro, as it could be easily overlooked as a middle of the album track.
Where Manchester shines is in its diversity. Barry goes from a pained, broken, and slack pace, his grizzled groans bringing an eerie intimacy to songs like the lonely piano-driven “Ronnie Song”, to the toe-tapping, whoa-oh’s of “C.R.F. (Retired).” Despite this fast-slow-fast-slow structure of the album, there’s never a point where it becomes jarring or breaks up the album's cohesiveness; it’s easy to put on Manchester and listen to it straight through. The slow, elegant violin sections on songs such as “222,” “This November,” and the aforementioned “C.R.F. (Retired)” deserve special mention, as the sharp contrast between them and Barry’s callous vocals sets Manchester apart from its peers.
Barry has made an album that will appeal to fans of folk music, not just fans of Tim Barry, and it’s largely because he is comfortable in the genre, not just testing the waters knowing the album will sell on name recognition alone.
--Greg Burchell
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raleigh