Roger Joseph Manning Jr. - Solid State Warrior/ The Land of Pure Imagination (2006)

http://www.mediafire.com/?jduhcnnttiw
You may not have heard of Roger Joseph Manning Jr. before, but you've certainly heard him before. He's played the session man role (usually keyboards & vocals) with artists as diverse as Air, Beck, Cheap Trick, Green Day, Redd Kross, Mars Volta, Jason Faulkner, Sheryl Crow, Bleu, Ringo Starr, Brian Reitzell and tons more. But he's no slouch when it comes to more upfront roles either, he's been a primary collaborator in the bands Moog Cookbook, Imperial Drag, TV Eyes, and (my personal favorite) Jellyfish.
Anyway, after much clamoring from Jellyfish fans Manning finally put out a solo album in 2006. Much of the Jellyfish sound is here yet he somehow made it even more poppy. Listening to this record is like having a thousand rainbow coloured candy canes shoved down your ears, and then chasing them with happy pills while playing with adorable puppies. And as much as Manning tries to vary the mood, which he does often, he can't get rid of the deliriously cheery mood that this album creates. Plus he's got the voice of a 14 year old choir boy and it lacks any grit whatsoever. So if you're one of those people who doesn't like happy music this probably isn't the album for you.
But if you are, you're in for a treat! Manning knows his way around songwriting and he takes great effort to keep things interesting; creative intros and outros, multi-part choruses, multiple bridges. Of course, the downside to that is that many of the songs run a bit long, but each song has several solid hooks so it's hard to get too upset with that. He's also a keyboard whiz and 80% of the non-guitar instruments on the album are all his keyboards, even the bass and drums. But for the most part, (with the exception of some of the synth-strings) you'd never even realize it.
This album was released twice, first titled Solid State Warrior, and then as The Land of Pure Imagination. The two versions have different tracklistings, but I've combined them so you can hear all 14 tracks instead of the 11 that the CD versions have (so if you think this album runs a bit long, blame me not Roger). - Ken
http://www.mediafire.com/?jduhcnnttiw