Album Review: Manny Blu, New Ink

There’s serious swagger and more than a dash of snarl to Manny Blu’s scrappy New Ink, which toggles between so-called outlaw country (paging Merle Haggard!) and something resembling messy alt-rock, albeit mercifully free of that genre’s tiresome existential angst. Maybe that attitude is a remnant of Blu’s former career as an MMA fighter. Wherever it comes from, it infuses the five songs here with satisfying grit.

Album opener “Burn Out Town” is an inky, stink-eyed survey of life in a small town. It yields to “Sink,” a saucy, unrepentant ‘screw you’ to a departing lover driven by some fantastic turns of phrase, not least this: “I’m going to sink to the bottom of this bottle of Jack / I’m going to drink to your memory ‘cause you’re never coming back.” Not exactly the sound of wounds being licked.

Elsewhere, the tuneful, upbeat “Born to Ride” uses the open road as an analogy for perfect love, as does the sturdy, bold, and conceptually intriguing “Old Money” which grandly closes out this gem of an EP, stridently led to the finish line by Blu’s ruggedly soulful voice.

New Ink was released November 13, 2020.
Listen to it here.