Robert Plant – Manic Nirvana

Significantly lesser Plant trying to capture something from his past as one reviewer noted. Not even a good sounding CD, being cluttered and compressed.

A great sounding ‘80’s hard rock pressing. Not sure how much better a UK original would be, but in isolation, this one’s mastered fairly hot for a lively sound with a punchy bass response and good midrange presence which suits this album to a tee.

Was this ever actually available separately from the Limited Edition box set?

I have this version but with out anything after the src03

This sounds amazing! Love it...good dynamics, sonically. Tie dye on the highway baby!

Manic Nirvana is the sound of Plant reliving his youth. After the maturity and restraint of the first three solo albums and the powerful comeback of 1988's Now & Zen, Manic Nirvana is the flamboyant 'cock-rock' show case the lunges him safely into the 90s. The guitars are fully overdriven and band turned up to eleven, while the strutting and vocal dynamics are well to the fore. Remember, Guns N Roses are one of the biggest bands now and Zeppelin are about to be remastered into immortality. The backing band, some of them co-writers of the material, are young, energetic and ready to rock. The songs are big, super-processed and built for the stadiums. Overall it's a highly commercial outgoing album a million miles away from the intimacy of most of his 80s output. Plant still belows out lyrical mumbo jumbo here in the usual macho rock fashion, yearns for his love interest and ponders the mysteries of love and lust. I remember buying this on CD when it was released in 1990, the gloss soon wore off as I was actually getting more in to Led Zeppelin. It was sitting on the shelf untouched for years until I sold it along with the other four Pant solo CDs from the 80s a few years back. Fast forward April 2015, I bought all five again on vinyl and now I'm re-rocking to them all. And while Manic Nirvana is not as interesting as the first three solo albums or the sophisticated power-pop of Now & Zen, it's not half bad for kicks 1990 style. A year later a band called Nirvana would release their second album Nevermind and rock would change forever. (Alan Murray 21, April, 2015)