CD Review: Man Raze - Surreal

Disclosure: I got this CD for free

Well, I have to say I didn't really expect to like this album, which is released today. Sure, I've listened to plenty of punk stuff and used to sing and play some in The Snats, The Stinking Badges and other bands. And, although the metal edge of rock isn't where I usually seek my thrills, I've been listening to more of it lately than I ever have. So I was surprised by this collection of songs by
Man Raze: Phil Collen of Def Leppard, Simon Laffy from Girl and Paul Cook of The Sex Pistols.

The album starts with a loud, fast punk track "This Is", which is raw and powerful, a great way to kickstart this album - sounding to my uncultured ears like it could be by Green Day, Blink 182 or one of those other teen beat combos. Second track "Turn It Up" could almost be a punk anthem with the chorus "Turn it up, turn it up, turn it up" - you can hear it here and watch the video here.

The tempo and styles change with the next track "Runnin' Me Up". Many punk bands and fans have a long held love of reggae, ska and bluebeat. This is a dub heavy track that reminds me a little of Big Audio Dynamite.

Styles change again to a more mainstream rock sound on "Every Second Of Every Day" - as with the rest of the album there are some great guitar sounds here.

We seem to move slightly in the direction of prog rock with the next song, "Spinning Out" - I like the feel of this one a lot, kind of loping along.

A little more dub influence on "Can't Find My Way" - I know I've made lots of comparisons in this review, but this track reminds me of all of the good things about The Police - a singalong chorus, a great reggae-influenced drum beat and stabbing rhythm guitar.

"Skin Crawl" has a more modern alternative rock sound - these guys have certainly been keeping their ears open to what is happening in the music world.

"Low" is as close as this album gets to a power ballad, though I use the term loosely. Like many other songs, this is very radio friendly.

We return to more of a punk style on "Connected To You" - cutting guitar stabs, and a repetitive singalong chorus help this fast paced track move along nicely.

The uptempo "Its Entertainment" starts with acoustic guitars, but before long the rock band kicks in with a full sound, another great chorus and excellent guitar work.

We end with "Shadow Man", a moody piece with more great guitar work.

So this album is just a few seconds under 40 minutes -there's no filler here at all, every track, in whatever style, can hold it's own with the others. If you like good modern music that is based in rock, then give this a listen. You might be surprised - I know I was.


The band have a MySpace page. There'll be a VH-1 Classic show about the band later in the year and they'll be on tour in the autumn of 2008.