Barbara Manning is cool. She's the original indie troubadour, a music fan living out a music fan's ultimate dream: travelling the world over to play and record with her favorite musicians (all of whom are plenty cool in their own right). She's so cool that she actually made Matador Records cooler when she was on their roster, instead of the other way around.
So, yes, Barbara Manning is a mighty cool person, and her unassuming, folksy, thoughtful jangle-pop has attracted a sizable cult following that may soon be calling for my head on a pike, once they see the lukewarm rating I've given You Should Know by Now. (Or maybe not, since most of the Barbara Manning fans I've met are pretty mellow, but you never know.) But it would be truly dishonest of me to say that You Should Know by Now is anywhere near the quality of her past work. In fact, it's surprising that Manning has maintained such consistent quality over the years, what with her constant label-jumping and perennial backing-band changes. When she has the likes of the Verlaines' Graeme Downes or Calexico, as on 1212 and In New Zealand, she can be golden; similarly, the albums she recorded for Matador, both solo and with the SF Seals, have the virtue of larger budgets and more studio time.
However, You Should Know by Now seems to have been created under less than ideal circumstances, resulting in a decent if uninspired album. I'm not trying to shift the blame to Manning's current backing band, the Go-Luckys (Flavio and Fabrizio Steinbach-- I just wanted to mention them because they have great names). In fact, the one track penned exclusively by the brothers Steinbach-- the churning, forceful instrumental "Boston Song"-- is quite good. But they were apparently unable to add any distinctive angles to Manning's sound, which at this point could use a little updating; more than once on this album, the scrubby guitar and jumpy drums were uncomfortably reminiscent of early-90's Lemonheads, cuddly but disposable.
Manning has a knack for writing songs that sound comfortable and familiar on the first listen, but only occasionally on You Should Know by Now is she able to use it to her advantage and make a chord progression or vocal melody completely her own. Too often she sounds like a less compelling version of other insecure girls with guitars-- Mary Timony, Juliana Hatfield, Elizabeth Elmore, etc. She can devolve into sing-songy preciousness too easily, as on "Goof on the Roof" (which even features a musical saw, for crying out loud), or choose a style not well-suited to her talents (on the supposedly chipper "You Knock Me Out," her plain voice sounds so deadpan that she seems less knocked out than merely tapped on the shoulder).
Perhaps its Manning's tendency to let her songs slouch about that I can't get into, because she sounds so much better when she's commanding. The faster, buzzier numbers here-- "Don't Neglect Yourself," with its snarling, Donnas-like riff, and the pitched, frantic frustration of "Buds Won't Bud"-- are pleasingly compact. And among the more melancholy, minor-key numbers, "Incapable" simmers with sad tension.
Manning has said that she dislikes being the sole creative force in a band, which may offer some justification for her many collaborations. You Should Know By Now is her most self-reliant release to date-- there are no covers and few joint songwriting credits-- and, sure enough, it's one of her weakest releases. There's enough here to keep the dedicated Manning fan satisfied, but newcomers would do well to look elsewhere for a better introduction, such as her work with the SF Seals or (if you can find them) earlier solo albums such as Lately I Keep Scissors and One Perfect Green Blanket.
