Review Summary: A fun first listen, but not much staying power
Chris Greenwood, aka Manafest, delivered a wild offering in 2017 with his octonary attempt at a mainstream popular album, Stones. The album is certainly a fun listen all the way through, but none of the songs are really a gem. It focuses on more of a rock tone, like 2012’s Fighter.
The opening track, also the title track, follows closely to the tune of 2010’s No Plan B, but in a good way. This song also features the best staying power. But at the end of the day, after all your song crazes are done, this is the best on the album.
House of Cards is one of the only songs that isn’t really good on first listen. As a matter of fact, House of Cards isn’t really good at all. The first couple choruses and verses sound like they were written by a nine year old. It does have a neat guitar solo though, written by Skillet’s Seth Mosley. Seth actually helps write six out of the eleven songs here. The other song that's not really good is Coming Back, which is just a filler.
Tracks three to five, Firestarter, When the Truth Comes Out, and Find a Way to Fight, try to be very loud with their meanings. And they certainly do succeed, especially in When the Truth Comes Out, where Mana is literally yelling “When the truth comes out it’s LOUD!”. While it can be overwhelming for a few, it is definitely effective and puts it up for relistens.
Find a Way to Fight is one of the harder rock songs on this album. As for the lyrics, they revolve around exactly what the title suggests (We won't stop till we win the war/ We're gonna stand all through the night/ We're gonna get what we came here for/ We're gonna find a way to fight). Firestarter is a poppy track, with Manafest yelling (I wanna be a firestarter!/ You can help me, if you wanna/ we can spread and make the whole world light up…). This song is also a song that would be up for a few relistens.
The last song worth relistens (not to put anything bad on the rest of the unmentioned songs; they just are ‘good but no more’) is Merry Go Round, and it also is the most mainstream friendly. The song's meaning is about Mana trying to get away from a girl (in the GF sense, yes) that spins him like a Merry Go Round. To understand, take a look at the lyrics (Tell me/ I'm an angel, I'm a demon, you hate me/ Then you love me till you're leaving me crazy /Round and round we go/ Can't get off this merry go). It’s a fun listen for everybody.
So, to summarize, Stones is a really great first listen, but doesn’t really seem to stick around. Manafest just doesn’t lay down his raps and riffs like he did with The Chase and Glory.
Stones and House of Cards did chart top fifty in mainstream rock, though, so that’s a success.
