Diamond Head

Phil Manzanera | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 26, 1990)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: E.G. Records
• ASIN: B000003S0T
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #306,347 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Oo-poo Peru!, April 23, 2000

By 

Johnny Bacardi (Horse Cave, KY United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Diamond Head (Audio CD)

Having enjoyed collaborations with John Cale on Fear and Eno on Here Come The Warm Jets and Taking Tiger Mountain, Phil Manzanera began to look around for opportunities to express himself in ways that he couldn't with Roxy Music, as they began their inexorable descent into Ferry-imposed blandness...Diamond Head is his first solo credit as a performer, and it's a hoot and a half and one excellent record. The album splits nicely into instrumental mood pieces like Lagrima and East of Echo and Enoesque pop songs like Big Day, Miss Shapiro and Frontera, which features great Spanish vocals by none other than Robert Wyatt. Manzanera doesn't really stretch out and show his chops here; the closest thing to a guitar showcase is the great title cut, with a marvelous solo featuring that distinctive, distorted echoey sound that used to be Manzanera's trademark sound. Mostly, Phil is content to craft sonic landscapes and let his guest stars provide the scenery, such as in the case of the aforementioned Wyatt vocal.(Especially Eno...I think many of these tunes would fit on Taking Tiger Mountain with no trouble at all). Big Day is a clever Eno tune with funny lyrics; I daresay it's probably the best song ever written by British pop stars about Peru...Miss Shapiro is another great Eno performance-just try to sing along with this song and breathe! I also like Same Time Next Week, with its Wetton duet vocal (I've always thought, at least in the 70's, that Wetton was an extremely underrated vocalist-he doesn't have much range, true, but he was very expressive)and odd rhythms...I really don't understand the "dated" tag other reviewers have hung on it...the female singer's character holds her own quite nicely, I think! And finally, I also love the closer Alma, with its aching melody and lyrics, and some extended riffing by Phil at the end...the song does run a bit long, but it's no less beautiful for it. I've been a admirer of this record for a long time; I think it's another overlooked gem. I especially recommend it to people who are discovering Roxy Music for the first time, and Eno fans.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Holds Up Well, March 21, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Diamond Head (Audio CD)

This release has aged better than most of Phil Manzanera's solo ventures, with the exception of 801 Live. It contains some essential Eno tracks like Big Day and Miss Shapiro and showcases Manzanera as a top notch axeman, his notes drenched with sustain.

There are some throwaway tracks here (Alma, Same Time Next Week), but overall this release is pretty darn good. Frontera--with Robert Wyatt providing vocals in Spanish--is awesome, as are the instrumentals The Flex, East of Echo and the title song. Fans of Brian Eno's 'rock' phase should definitely have this one in their collection.

There rough edges and inconsistent tracks, but overall this is Manzanera's best solo effort. Many different styles coalecse into an organic whole.

You can find many of these songs in different incarnations on 801 Live and on the jazz rock fusion release Mainstream, by Quiet Sun, of which Manzanera was a member during the mid-70s. That release is worth seeking out.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A treat for Roxy fans, July 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Diamond Head (Audio CD)

This is really a wonderful album, one of the not-so-well-known gems of the '70s Roxy Music-related canon. Despite not being a singer, guitarist Phil Manzanera put together a surprisingly coherent, witty collection of (mostly) vocal rock. Backed by the Roxy Music rhythm section (including the great drummer Paul Thompson) with plenty of help from Eno, Eddie Jobson, and Andy Mackay, this is the closest thing extant to a Roxy album sans Bryan Ferry. And that's actually not a bad thing.

Manzanera's guitar and compositional skills come to the fore here, but he rarely showboats as a lead guitarist, as one might expect in a solo album by a "guitar hero." As with Roxy, he's more interested in creating textures with his guitar, and he does it in many different styles: hard rock, funk, jazz, and more.

Still, it's primarily an album of songs. Even the instrumentals are more about composition and mood than chops, including the lovely title track and the complex and riveting "East of Echo." The vocal tracks are highlighted by two exceptionally cool Brian Eno songs: "Big Day" and the bizarre and rocking "Miss Shapiro." Robert Wyatt pitches in with the sung-in-Spanish but still catchy "Frontera." The usually horrid (as a singer) John Wetton even turns in a credible performance on the funky "Same Time Next Week." Few albums featuring multiple, unrelated vocalists come off as consistently listenable or coherent as this one.

Manzanera's subsequent solo albums mined a similar formula, but less interestingly and with far less Roxy Music influence. If you liked the classic '73-75 era of Roxy, you *must* own this album. You won't be disappointed.