RICK MANWILLER - LIVING AT SQUARE ONE

CONFIDENTIAL RECORDS

By Nick Baldrian For Sound Barrier Magazine UK.

7.5/10

   Dakota main man Rick Manwiller's"Living At Square One" is the follow up to his debut album "....Another Fine Mesozoic" which was released in 1985. Since then he has reformed Dakota and released two strong aor albums via Escape music in the UK.  So why has this album been ignored then?  As this an album full of great aor/pop tinted songs,and great production work.

   "Let Go" is an excellent song, an obvious choice for a single, I like the fact that there's a lot of melody without going over the top, I liked the timing of the chorus, very cool light weight aor.
   "Survive Tonight" is country pop,"This Night" either Mark Spiro/King Of Hearts/Richard Marx westcoast aor territory with a very fine classy riff, Rick comes over very well on this song with it's Honeymoon Suite style chorus, this would make another ideal single and one of the albums highlights.
   "Company" doesn't really go anywhere, but does feature a nice piano melody, "Bump", sounds like Dakota a little bit, I like this one- classy and irresistible, Rick comes across like Kevin Chalfant,Rick Springfield and a few other known pop artists on this song.  But it's the mid-section guitar solo that's make this song a hit.
   "Blurring The Lines"is well sung but has no sort of content to it*, Phil Collins does this stuff better.
   "Nasty Lil Bidness" is lightweight jazzy pop with a slight funky edge,it's put together well, and i like those big horns,the groove keeps you intrested and has a good feel and makes for another highlight.
   "The Best I Can Do" is a love song,featuring the semi-legandary Jimmy Harnen,i'm amazed at the depth of Ricks vocals,the way he holds the whole song together, soft, classy styled aor with a great mid section orchestration which was a nice suprise,it's a bit poppy,i remember the first time i heard this song and i was in bed with my girl,i loved it and so did she!!!A good song for that special moment!!!!the last song
   "Nothin' To Say (But Goodbye) is more up tempo cool as f****r refrained rocker that should sound great on the radio.
   All in all you can forgive Rick for the pop flavoured approach that he has taken with this album, it's not a million miles away from the luxurios aor featured on the Dakota albums, but the quality does shine through, the next Dakota album should be a killer.

*Rick's note: non-US citizens will not 'get' these lyrics. To politically-hip Americans, this song has a large amount of 'content' to it. Also, Par Winberg of Midwestern Skies