Since it's just one guy named Adam Busch who writes songs, plays guitar and sings, with a constantly rotating backing band, you can only call Manishevitz a band in the same way you could call, say, Guided by Voices or Nine Inch Nails a band. Thing is, in that regard it's a fantastic band. The songs are quality, nicely arranged and beautifully produced. In the "actual band" regard, however, the outlook's not quite as sunny, since the growth of the collective as a whole can only mature at the rate of its central member, and perhaps more importantly, because the results can vary greatly from record to record.
For the occasion of this EP, Busch has torn a few pages out the family photo album of Chicago's well-established indie (post-)rock scene, and lured them into a studio. But this is one of those instances where the payoff isn't what it should be: This method has equated to some utterly exquisite music in the past, even from this band-- and mind you, it's not actually half-bad-- but here, the results are somewhat frustrating.
The recording itself may be somewhat to blame, as it doesn't ring with the kind of clarity that brought 2000's gorgeous Rollover home so effectively. You could practically hear that album breathing, and that's the kind of treatment Manishevitz needs-- Busch's voice is a limited instrument, and he needs some space in the mix to be most effective. Here, there's something almost muted about the sound, as though the decidedly pale colors on the cover were the inspiration for everything contained within.
And that's a shame, because the music deserves better. The two originals, co-written by Busch and guitarist Via Nuon (aka Bevel), are still inspired pieces of work. "Back in the Day" is a loopy waltz in the grand Manishevitz tradition, with a smart arrangement by long-term contributor Fred Lonberg-Holm, and sports a great instrumental passage where Lonberg-Holm plays some nicely crunchy cello parts, and Nuon heads up top with some searching phrases. It's immediately outdone, however, by the excellent title track, easily one of the most energetic pieces Manishevitz have recorded. Nuon's lightly embellished melodies are the carrot pulling the rest of the band along, and they duly whip the song up to a full gallop.
But aside from a rather incidental tape collage called "Backwards Deck", the rest of the EP consists of two covers-- Robert Wyatt's "Free Will and Testament" and Roxy Music's "2HB"-- neither of which are especially interesting in this context. "Free Will and Testament" just kind of drifts along, and while Nuon and Lonberg-Holm try subtly to spruce it up with various embellishments, it's a losing proposition. "2HB" suffers more, though, as Busch just cannot do Bryan Ferry's swooning vocal melody justice. The song gets further bogged down in its intentionally cluttered outro, which basically ends up sounding like Radiohead's "The National Anthem" with no muscle.
Taken alongside Manishevitz's other work, I'd label Private Lines a minor letdown, though I hardly think it's cause for alarm-- EPs are frequently used as clearinghouses and stopgaps between albums, and this seems like a case of that kind of mentality. In short: fans will likely be interested in what they find here, but newcomers are much better advised to head straight to Rollover.
