If you play Phil Manzanera’s previous album “6PM”, then this one follows approximately “50 Minutes Later”. Yes, I thought it was clever too. I really enjoyed last year’s “6PM” a lot. In fact, it was my favourite album of 2004 and is still in rotation at Chez Lock. When I heard that there was going to be a follow-up, I was both overjoyed and apprehensive. How would Mr M follow-up such a strong release?
Well I had needn’t worry because “50 Minutes Later” is almost a direction continuation of the “6PM” vibe. Opening track “Revolution” echoes “Green Spiky Cactus” (and the bassline also apes the INXS hit “Need You Tonight”) and “Technicolour UFO” has a hook that sticks – it also name checks all those characters from the 24-hour Technicolour Dream hippy extravaganza. Mind you, PM had me hooked with the lyric “There’s Kevin Ayers sitting in the corner, singing from the bottom of a well”. Oh yeah. The first two tracks are great, plenty of crunchy guitars and are upbeat rocking numbers.
The rest of the album then takes a more mellow vibe. “That’s All I Know” is a reflective acoustic-driven song, the vocal work on “Desaparacido” immediately reminded me of Steve Hackett and the song itself has a great chorus. “One Step” again is a reflective piece, full of doubt and questions, and “Swimming” sums it all up with the line “Let’s not waste this precious life, as time keeps slipping away”. It’s an album of reflection, of adulthood, of regret and of new resolutions. It’s a very positive record. The album then gets darker (naturally) with “Bible Black” which is heavy and brooding and magnificent at the end. “Till the End of the Line” resolves the various themes of the album. The two instrumental tracks “50 Minutos Mas Tarde”, which features Robert Wyatt and sounds very jazzy and experimental for PM, and “Dusza” break up the vocal songs and are quite different from Manzanera’s usual instrumenal pieces, with no burning electric guitar solos.
As an album, it’s very good and a very different journey from “6PM”. Whereas that album has a confident swagger and plenty of guitar for us boys, this follow-up is far more mature affair and sees Manzanera writing some of his best lyrics of his career. My only criticism is the utterly pointless Eno remix of “Bible Black”, which is, in my honest opinion, a big steaming crock of shit. It spoils a good album.
(And keep your ears out for the hidden track that comes after “Till the End of the Line”)
Recommended listening.

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