Adam Ant - Manners & Physique

Under-rated

Apparently many fans don't think this release was as good as prior ones from Mr. Ant however I've always thought it was one of the best. I am a huge Adam Ant fan(with or without the Ants)and remember buying this when it first came out and thinking wow this is going to be a big hit. Sadly it was not but I really believe this is surpassed only by Friend Or Foe as Adam Ant's best album. Once you hear "Anger Inc." you can't stop humming it! July 5, 2008

Radical metamorphosis

"Manners & Physique" has always been one of my favorite albums from Adam Ant. It was my first album of his I got and sports a nice, slick late 80's production moving Adam forward a little closer to hip hop than his hard rocking previous effort, "Vive Le Rock".

One thing I must say about Adam is really has guts. This is a guy who has consistently reinvented himself by making a different record every time which is something most artists don't dare to do. "Manners and Physique" employs a drum machine, much less guitar and more of a synthpop/electronic sound. Rockers will hate this album in the same way they hated Van Halen's "Jump" where this album shows no signs of Adam's punk oriented work and guitars are replaced with synthisizers and drum machines.
At this point, Adam has experimented with pretty much everything:
Punk
Rockabilly
Rap
Swing
Hard Rock
Pop
and now bringing him to hop hop.

Adam Ant in some ways kind of reminds me of Bowie. Their music is much different but it won't surprise anyone to see Bowie as Ziggy Stardust or The Thin White Duke. We've seen Adam mostly as a rocker, or a new waver with bizarre style which more than likely set some trends in the 80's but here we see a more corporate, cleaned up and sober looking Adam compared to his early 80's image. What's funny is this is a man who never drank or did drugs in the 80's, as clean and sober as they come regardless of what people said about him back then.

This release sports more positive lyrics. My mom bought this album for me when I was a kid. It's pretty much safe for anyone to listen to. Nothing weird, no mentioning of sex or disease or anything else he used to talk about on his records. The album produced a hit with "Room at the Top" but that's about it. I agree with what someone said on here, if this was released in '87 or so, the album probably would have put out more hits but who cares. It's still a great album and a must have for any fan. I can't remember what the critics said about this album but he was blamed for some of the same things Gary Numan was accused of back then which was sounding too much like Prince. I believe Prince's bass was on this album and has a strong Minneapolis pop type of production. Yeah, it does kind of sound like Prince but it's a dance album and I like Prince and I like dance albums so I will probably always enjoy this record.

It kind of reminds me of modern hip hop meets mid 80's Prince without the sexually driven lyrics which are probably the reason why the album wasn't a huge success. In 1989 rap was becoming more prominent on dance floors where this wasn't quite as cutting edge as Rob Base or Information Society who was tearing up the floors back then. This album didn't quite stand up to that stuff but overall, it's a good album. Nothing weird, no guitars, no screaming, just good, easy on the ears top 40 pop. If you can get your hands on this release, by all means.....get it. It's one of the few albums that was well produced and doesn't need remastering. Think mid-80's Human League and how they sounded with their song "Human". Kind of top 40, kind of contemporary fused with pop and hip hop. That's what this is.
April 8, 2007

Adam in a GQ-ready pose on a melodic dance record...

I agree with the below reviewer this is Adam in his late 80's GQ pose. Very of it's time.

The songs on the record are:
Room At The Top/Rough Stuff/If You Keep On/Manners & Physique
/Can't Set Rules About Love/U.S.S.A./Bright Lights Black Leather/Piccadilly/Young Dumb And Full Of It/Anger, Inc.

The dated sound of the drum machine that graces each track leaves much to be desired. The album has a few things going against it.
The minimal use of Marco and his fabulous playing, the aforementioned drum machine, the production and ill-suited colaborator in Andre Symone (Prince's old bass player).
Having said that the songs themselves are pretty good but are somewhat devoid of the fun signature Ant sound. It sounds like it was produced by someone who had no idea of who Adam was.

"Room At The Top", "Rough Stuff", "Can't Set Rules About Love" and the title track (which is a re-rewritten song called "Doggy Style" from the Vive Le Rock demos) are the winners in an otherwise forgettable batch of songs.

Infact a few of the B-sides that accompanied the albums' singles
("Bruce Lee", "Brand New Torso", "How to steal the world") would have made the album more intersting - as these songs are all better than a lot of the album's tracks.

Sadly this album's follow-up Persuasion was lost in the record label restaffing and was never released. Which is unfortunate as Persusaion is a much better record than Manners & Physique.

"Rebop The Bebop" April 15, 2006

Here and now is all that counts.

After a four year hiatus Adam Ant returned recharged in early 1990 with "Room At The Top". He proved he could still crack the top 40, something I'm sure no one thought possible at the time. I remember when this came out, and I remember thinking it was average. Now however, it actually is better than "Vive Le Rock". There's something here, if you listen past the late 80's production gloss that still resonates well today (better than "Vive Le Rock" at least). There are a number of good tracks here like "Rough Stuff", "If You Keep On", "Manners & Physique", "Can't Set The Rules About Love", Bright Lights Black Leather", "Young Dumb And Full Of It" and "Anger, Inc." By far, the worst track is "U.S.S.A."

It's too bad this isn't digitally remastered (due to it being on a different record label from his first six albums). His next album would not be released by the evil record company execs, so we'd have to wait five more years until Adam would re-emerge with "Wonderful".

So, overall, not a bad album, but a little dated with the late 80's production and instrumentation. It's not as timeless as "Prince Charming" or "Friend Or Foe", but worth picking up for the Ant fan. February 3, 2006

Under-rated Adam Ant

Sure, it's no "Friend or Foe" or even "Vive Le Rock", but "Manners & Physique is a good pop album on it's own merit and well worth a listen. In 1990 Adam Ant was trying to be more innovative and modern I suppose and brought in Prince's producer Andre Cymone to produce something that can most probably be compared to, well, Prince stuff. It's pop with a danceable rhythm with Adam Ant's unique lyrics still abounding. Unfortunate, too, is the release of "Room At The Top", which is probably not the best song on the album, that honour would probably have to go to "Anger, Inc". True, it's not a definitive Adam Ant album, but it's still worth a listen. Adam's unreleased "Persuasion" album from 1993 is in the same vein as this, as well. The 1995 album "Wonderful" was a lot more pop adult contemporary and not as fun as this.

Amazon doesn't seem to list the tracks, so here they are:

TRACKS:

1. Room At The Top. 4:43
2. Rough Stuff. 4:40
3. If You Keep On. 4:16
4. Manners & Physique 3:30
5. Can't Set Rules About Love 4:43
6. U.S.S.A. 4:27
7. Bright Lights Black Leather.5:22
8. Piccadilly.4:52
9. Young Dumb And Full Of It.3:32
10. Anger, Inc. 4:35 September 14, 2005

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