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June 8, 2001 MANNIX "Come to California," the 16-song, two-CD set from Mannix, is the rare rock "concept album" that sustains a coherent narrative from start to finish. It's the story of a struggling musician who marries his girlfriend, Geraldine, rents a tiny Manhattan apartment and takes a day job. She leaves him, and he follows her out to Los Angeles where he stalks her and her new boyfriend. He contemplates murderous revenge, but after a cathartic night on Topanga Beach, he lets her go and heads back home. These are more universal experiences than trying to play pinball when you can't see or hear, and the agonies of unreciprocated love are brought to life with jangly power-pop melodies by Joe Mannix, the lead singer and songwriter of this New York quartet. The musical landscape is staked out by the lyrics' allusions to Bob Dylan's "It's All Over Now, Baby Blue," the Beach Boys' "Till I Die" and Gerry Rafferty's "Baker Street" and by the two tracks overseen by Ben Folds Five producer Caleb Southern. Joe Mannix has a real gift for writing pop hooks and for giving romantic problems the specifics of real life. He sometimes obscures those assets by failing to strip away excess notes and words and by failing to find a sure groove. But when he does boil a song down to its essence on the beatific wedding song "Best Suit," the vengeful "Gasoline" or the hymnlike "Sunshine," he serves notice that he's ready to move up from the minor leagues of self-released albums to a major label. -- Geoffrey Himes Appearing Friday at IOTA. • To hear a free Sound Bite from Mannix, call Post-Haste at 202/334-9000 and press 8102. (Prince William residents, call 690-4110.) |
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