Lone Arranger is Manfred Mann’s second solo album. Once again Mann stamps his unique mark on tracks that may be familiar but are now given a new twist. Kanye West sampled the Mann track 'You Are - I Am' on his track 'So Appalled' and in return Mann has completely rearranged and changed the track which now appears as 'Hands In The Air'. He has also improvised and used tracks by The Prodigy ('Stand Up') and Disco Boys ('For You'), both tracks originally based on Manfred Mann tracks, but now adding a different element to them.

Mann also uses his arranging skills to provide different takes on very well known 'anthems' of modern pop and rock and has recorded hugely familiar songs such as 'Light My Fire', 'We Will Rock You' and 'Nothing Compares 2 U' as a challenge and to show his classical leanings, lead track in Germany is the track ‘Footprints’, based on the second movement of Joaquín Rodrigo's “Concierto de Aranjuez” which includes spoken word by Kris Kristofferson.

Who would have the balls to update Marvin Gaye's classic 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine'? No one would do that! That's a musical career suicide. But then to follow that up with 'Nothing Compares 2 U' (Prince's classic that was made famous by Sinéad O'Connor)... well you'd have to be high on drugs or mad as a box of frogs, right? Wrong! This works incredibly well. Mann is a genius.

Guests appearing on Lone Arranger include the afore mentioned Kristofferson, Mark King of Level 42, Carleen Anderson, Ruby Turner, Caitlyn Scarlett, Viktoria Tolstoy, and members of the Earth Band past and present.

On the face of it, it's a bizarre album that takes in so many different styles and tastes, is sucked into the Mann machine, which spits out something that you'll never have experienced before.

Track listing:

01 - 'One Hand In the Air' (feat. Kanye West)
02 - 'All Right Now'
03 - 'Rock You'
04 - 'Footprints' (En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor)
05 - 'I Came For You' (feat. Manfred Mann's Earth Band & Disco Boys)
06 - 'Light My Fire'
07 - 'I Heard It Through the Grapevine'
08 - 'Nothing Compares To You'
09 - 'Insects'
10 - 'Ukor'
11 - 'Aranjuez First Movement' (En Aranjuez Con Tu Amor)
12 - 'Bang a Gong'
13 - 'The Crystal Ship'
14 - ' One Way Stand-up' (feat. The Prodigy)

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Nick Smithson