Manage the Damage

Jimmy Somerville

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 11, 2000)
• Original Release Date: January 11, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Instinct Records
• ASIN: B00003IE1Z
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #145,479 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Working with cowriter and coproducer Sally Herbert, Somerville has crafted a fine dance-pop album. There aren't any big surprises lurking within these 11 tracks, just a batch of tasteful arrangements and nuanced production accompanying Somerville's unfaltering falsetto. "Something to Live For" opens with a pop-ballad intro, but soon shifts gears into an uptempo, affirmative dance track tinged with melancholy. The song's attitude and vibe recall '70s disco classics like Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." Manage the Damage's high point is the masterful pop gem "This Must Be Love," in which Somerville's relaxed singing is propelled by a trip-hop undertow and then a swooning bridge blossoms into a lovely chorus that's both dreamy and irresistibly catchy. The disc's last tune, "Rolling," features floating strings buoyed by a hypnotic bass line. The accompaniment nicely supports Somerville's vocals on this well-chosen closer. --Fred Cisterna

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the most unique voices in pop music, April 28, 2000

By	Eric Wahl (Bozeman, MT, USA) - See all my reviews

I have to say I knew this album was out awhile before I bought it . . . cautiously. I really despised Sommerville's ultra-dull VH-1 on Nembutol last disc, but there's just no other voice like his, and I read good reviews of Manage the Damage, so I got it. Happily, it's made me entirely forget his last dud. This album is controlled and well-thought-out musically. Only one song is a bit overly-preachy (about physical abuse), but that's the only irritation (a lyrical one; the song sounds nice). The opening track reminds me of a catchier version of the song he recorded for the film Orlando--vaguely operatic/house/orientalist--very cool, and my favorite track on the disc. But what I like just as much as Sommerville's voice is that this album has the sound of something that won't grow immediately stale, and it's great finding a CD I can listen to all the way through without skipping tracks. Glad I bought it.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Manages the Damage rather remarkably, March 3, 2000

By	"boy_with_the_thorn_in_his_side" (Atlanta, GA United States) - See all my reviews

Jimmy Somerville is an artist who incorporates the disco/70's style of music into the dance and EBM genre (like the lounge singer meets a modern Donna Summer). His voice flows with today's dance and electronica. A welcome soloist in the tradition of The Pet Shop Boys, but much more layered and enriched with his falsetto vocal ranges. Only the British could produce an operatic quality male singer as the "pushing 40"- but still with vision- Jimmy Somerville. A tenor with eurodisco in his blood, and even though eurodisco is getting a bad rap these days, Jimmy proves with all of these tracks that he's got "Something To Live For"... for "This Must Be Love". A beautiful man with unmatched vocals and talent.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brings out the Mary in me, September 28, 2000

By	Big Tim "butch99xx" (NYC, NY USA) - See all my reviews

What can I say, he was the soundtrack of my youth and it's great having a new album of material. The tracks range from decent to great which is a better average then the recent Pet Shop Boys album or anything released by Boy George in the last decade. But Jimmy, hook up with better mixers! Get to New York and work with new blood! Stop being so English, would ya?!