As Is – MANFRED MANN***

Trouble & Tea/A Now & Then Thing/Each Other’s Company/Box Office Draw/Dealer Dealer/Morning After The Party/Another Kind Of Music/As Long As I Have Lovin’/Autumn Leaves/Superstitious Guy/You’re My Girl/Just Like A Woman

As Is heralded a change of label and a new vocalist, Mike D'Abo, for regular sixties hit makers Manfred Mann. Includes the Dylan cover Just Like A Woman, a UK No. 10 hit single. (UK:22)

"Manfred Mann's first album with Mike D'Abo in front is something of a mixed bag - you're never quite sure what direction they are aiming at. It actually seems that one of the songs touches upon this dilemma - Another Kind Of Music describes a person who enjoys his pop success but at the same time wants to be a classical musician. In the same way it is well-known that Manfred Mann and drummer Mike Hugg enjoyed playing jazz music and that they never really took pop music that seriously."

"I just don't love them the same way I love The Beatles, Stones, Beach Boys or Bob Dylan. This stuff is mediocre in comparison. Well done to the guys for replacing Paul Jones with Mike D'Abo though. You can hardly tell the difference!"

"This is the third album by the band, after Five Faces and Mann Made, but the relevant fact is that this is the first without Paul Jones. It is a clear transition; while they continue with their sound jazz blues, they try to experiment above all from the console's production, with an apparently unfinished and confusing result."

"As Is was definitely the best Manfred Mann album so far. It pretty much drops all the pretence and completely erases any borders that still existed between Manfred Mann 'the commercially successful singles band' and Manfred Mann 'the seriously out of touch LP ensemble'. Quite true to its name, the album gives us eight compositions, all of them self-penned (mostly either by Mike D'Abo or drummer Mike Hugg, although Manfred himself does help on a couple of numbers), and practically each and every one of them a potential hit single. Okay, that doesn't necessarily mean a potential good hit single, but remember, when it's unpretentious hook-based pop we're talking about, it's almost always guaranteed to be listenable at the very least."

"Although I prefer The Manfreds featuring Paul Jones, Mike D'Abo helped them turn the corner from a blues band to a pop act."