As I say, my recent sickness is called Manicure. It blows my mind when I find such fresh bands all by chance and can’t get them out of my head. Manicure – a recently well-known Russian indie and post-punk band. Makes you lose yourself the very moment you hear them – it wakes so many different emotions and various memories. The band is unique and original, but at the same time it reminds you of many other famous bands by its sound, vocals, the overall feeling it leaves you with. And so – meet the new Joy Division and Interpol! I don’t know whether Manicure plays songs of these bands, but you can literally smell how they affected it. All the band members are as young as we are, but they’re pretty mature in what they do. The band was formed in 2006 and consisted of three members by that time: Zhenya (he gained some experience in another noise project before – Remoteband), Anya and Polina. The latters are sisters and play drums and guitar. Back then the band was weirdly called Who Bed Models and recorded a number of songs under that name. Some of those songs ended up in this album. After their first EP was released in 2007 European clubs were struggling with each other to get them, but they rejected all the offers, sat back and recorded a wonderful LP – getting a junior band member in process.

Now, let’s talk of the album.

I Wanna Be Free made me crazy most of all, so we’re gonna start with it. This song reminds of Division most of all; the reason is Zhenya’s hysterical and nervous voice has calmed here, and the 80s sound, of course. I’m not even tired of the repeated few phrases that this song consists of, and those vintage guitars and old synths. Simply a wonderful work of art, takes your breath away and makes you fall in love with it right away if you’re stuck on those phrases yourself. The following The Sun is a salvation and for what I know it’s the most complete song of the album, both sick and sad at the same time, but still they sing of the Sun. And The One resembles Interpol, starts and ends with almost the same guitars, raising such a wave on depression in you, that you can’t help wondering how come those youngsters have felt that one, too.

Over the lifetime love could be the one
You may go now
I will stay here
For some reason I thought you were the one
My heart skips a bit
It’s all over

No doubt those words will come hard on you. One thing: the lyrics in this album are somehow poor, but yet they tend to hit the goal and go perfectly well with the music.

Another Girl – totally post-punk, and that’s Manicure’s most famous song. Has pretty likable drive and English with Russian accent. Let’s take it and run to the nearest club. In the crowdy chaos we won’t be able to tell Another Girl from the one and only, can we?

I’ve got you my attomic summer
I’ve got you my attomic summer
I’ve got you my attomic summer

Zhenya sings with as low voice as possible, and we’re moving forward from 80s again.

I Don’t, Can’t Say Yes, Can’t Say No – now these are for the horror lovers, all spiced up by dirty guitars. It may seem that While Parents Sleep (Chidlren Come Home) is among them, but in fact it’s the story of Russian youth in today’s reality (perhaps it’s this song that made them get a flat and spend time fooling around there before forming the actual band.. No dirty thinking!). The song is saved by the beautiful solo in the end. Hm, what’s going on with me, I’m all into the solos lately..

Hate, Love, Shame

Hate, love, shame come together
Break me up all together
In your room we are together
Side by side all together

This is where we notice that the monotonous has come back, so we’ll just change the channel to.. I’ve Been Waiting. But even the active guitar can’t save the day. That guy constantly proves he can easily fall into depression and sing of love and the loved one in his own way:

Too nice you’re very nice
Won’t you kiss me I’m lonely
Are you that girl I’ve been waiting for long?
You’re in you’re out I can’t make a sound, so

But the originality isn’t spoiled by it. There are either almost no lyrics at all, or so little of them, but those consist of plain words and are repeated throughout the song, while the music takes the first place. So every city would dream of being represented by such a band that stands out the rest of all the numbers of them. And that explains why everyone’s waiting impatiently for their second album to come out this year.

First single from that album, The Lights Are Out, has already been released on May 17. Manicure noised a lot about it on their website, but shared no other details about forthcoming LP. All we can do is wait and hope to see them touring in our city someday.

G_N