Catnip Dynamite

Saying that Roger Manning loves the '70s is at once an understatement -- there's a reason he first came to wider attention playing with Jellyfish -- and a perfect description of what he's doing on his second full solo album, Catnip Dynamite, though happily it's not a completely musty revivalist exercise. Instead, Manning knows how to make all his endless series of familiar signifiers feel more of the moment than most can manage; whether that's the example of his sometime employer Beck rubbing off or not, it ensures Catnip Dynamite hits from the start and doesn't let up. If anything, Manning's mix-and-match approach to perfect pop knows how to draw on multiple layers at once -- "Love's Never Half as Good" simultaneously recalls late-'60s Beach Boys and late-'80s XTC interpretations of that sound, while the brilliant "Down in Front" could be both a classic trash-glam hit from the mid-'70s U.K. and Denim's awesomely perfect reworking of that style from its own '90s releases. But for all the spot-the-reference games that one could very easily play, Catnip Dynamite is often at its best when a listener just lets it flow, from the groovy "The Quickening" to the spectacular "Living in End Times," perhaps the sunniest pop/rock song about the Apocalypse in some years. A secret highlight might be "Survival Machine" -- if the combination of hyperactive church organ and falsetto isn't a Sparks tribute by intent, it's still one in the end anyway. ~ Ned Raggett