Bands change over time, if they last long and have musical vitality and dignity.
In rock,my favorites like Rush, Genesis, Jethro Tull and XTC went through so many periods and styles, it makes zero sense to answer briefly when someone asks “what’s their music like?”
Mànran have been for 15 years in the groundbreaking frontline of new and energetic Scottish/Gaelic folk and folk rock. An absolutely fabulous band and one of the bands whose music opened the Celtic door for me when I got my “Celtic awakening” about ten years ago. I feel like I owe them.
A decade and a half of hard work will change a band – if the band wants to stay vibrant and curious, that is.
So it’s no wonder the Mànran of 2025 is not the same as the 2011 incarnation, the year of their debut album. Half of the lineup has changed since the early days, most recently big bass guy Ross Saunders’ place was taken by experienced session player Marcus Cordock. Kim Carnie and Aidan Moodie were onboard already on the previous album, Ùrar, so To The Wind is the second album by the 7-piece Mànran.
I just returned briefly to Ùrar to check if my memory was correct, and it was. Ùrar, even if it does have some faster tunes, is probably the most somber of the band’s releases so far.
In contrast, To The Wind not only has an English album title, it comes with a few upbeat Carnie-Moodie penned songs that are more pop than folk; solid radio friendly stuff with catchy oo-oo-oo phrases for everyone to sing along. The opener Standing Still is a case in point, and Something That I Said even features something of a mid tempo disco beat with handclaps in the chorus, sure to go down live like dynamite.
But then there’s the other side of the coin. Ewen Henderson, Ryan Murphy and Gary Innes have contributed great tunes, both instrumentals and in Gaelic, in the “old Mànran” style. Henderson’s puirt tune Mire is even almost an identical twin to the debut album’s Puirt.
Call me old or rigid, but I do find this “double identity” on an album a bit distracting. Everything here is quality stuff – you wouldn’t expect anything less from Mànran – but I do feel like I’m switching between not only albums but bands as To The Wind plays uninterrupted all the way through.
Maybe I will take the pop-leaning songs on Ùrar and To The Wind and put them in one playlist and create another playlist for the more traditional style tunes on these albums.
Make no mistake: I will enjoy both, for different reasons and in different moods, but I’ll be spared the musical disorientation I feel especially with this new one.
When an excellent band has been around long enough, they will inevitably look for new directions and horizons. I think Mànran have reached that point and it will be exciting to see what lies ahead. I’m staying tuned…
FolkNotes 