Manhattan Transfer fanhood and other diseases

I'm going to write today about how incredibly frustrating it was to be a Manhattan Transfer fan in the 90's, but ultimately how it all paid off when they released "Vibrate" in 2004.

Here's my history with the Transfer:

Sometime in 1991, I see the closing credits of Entertainment Tonight and they are playing a Manhattan Transfer video for their new song "The Offbeat of Avenues." I had never heard of these people. Of course, I was only 14 at the time, but still. My older brother said, "Oh sure, The Manhattan Transfer... they're really good." It is so funny how much my brother knew about music back then, especially since he's a staunch Baptist now and only listens to classical, but that's another story.

So, the next chance I get, someone in my family drives me to Strawberries record store so I can peruse the Manhattan Transfer tapes and figure out which one has that song on it. It turns out, that album would not come out for another month, so I picked up their 1985 album "Vocalese" as my first Manhattan Transfer purchase. I immediately fell in love with their awesome harmonies and solo voices as well. It wasn't hard for me to figure out who was who and which voice corresponded to which picture, unlike the Indigo Girls where it took me, like, ten years to figure out that the brown-haired one has the husky voice.

When "The Offbeat of Avenues" album came out a month later, I was completely floored. It really is on the short list of amazing albums from the early 90's that completely knocked my socks off. The other two albums on that list are k. d. lang's "Ingenue" and Suzanne Vega's "99.9F" I thought The Manhattan Transfer was completely genius for putting out such an awesome pop/jazz album. For the remainder of that Fall, I steadily picked up most of the rest of their catalogue to that point: "Extensions," "Mecca for Moderns," "Bodies and Souls," and "Brasil." All of these albums are totally awesome, especially for a 14-year old. The only one that hasn't aged very well with me is "Bodies and Souls," but it still has its moments.

So, you'd think a vocal group with such a great track record would be able to follow up "The Offbeat of Avenues" with another winner. WRONG. After a very nice Christmas album in 1992, the Transfer's next regular album was "Tonin'" in 1994. "Tonin'" features about 13 really uninspired covers of 50's and 60's Motown and Birth of Rock 'N Roll tunes recorded with the original artists or other guest pop artists. Incredibly boring. And, then in 1997, they released "Swing" which I couldn't get into at the time of release. It seemed to me like TMT were just hopping on the neo-swing movement sparked by the Squirrel Nut Zippers around that time. I was kinda' annoyed that TMT were just following a trend. I was finally able to get into "Swing" just this year (9 years later) and I realize my assumptions about the album were totally wrong. I now consider "Swing" one of TMT's all-time great albums. But, my feelings about the album during the 90's was not very high, so they continued to sink in my book.

And, then, in 2000, TMT released what is widely regarded as their worst album EVER -- "The Spirit of St. Louis." There are plenty of scathing reviews on Amazon.com that you can read to understand just what is wrong with the CD. So, I had all but completely written the Manhattan Transfer off. But, then, by some miracle, they actually managed to release a superb new album in 2004 called "Vibrate." I wasn't even going to pick it up, but I recognized some of the song titles like "Walking in New York" by Brenda Russell (who I love) and "The Greek Song" by Rufus Wainwright who I'm not such a big fan of but I thought it would be interesting to hear the Manhattan Transfer cover. And, the album is really, really good and it restores TMT to their proper place in my list of favorite artists. I think it was ultimately "Vibrate" that led me to give "Swing" another listen and realize it really is a very good album.

So, I guess that's it for my Manhattan Transfer blog. Oh, and if you get a chance, try to buy their "Vocalese Live" DVD from 1986. That is simply astounding.