Sean Noonan: Man No Longer Me

From the first bass notes of "Man Vs. Machine" the opening track from Sean Noonan's Man No Longer Me it's obvious that this isn't your average jazz fusion record. The Irish American Noonan combines West African rhythms, with jazz harmony, and the absurdist humor and attitude of Frank Zappa, making this release a welcome respite from the tepid "Berklee Funk" that often populates jazz fusion.

The album is based on the loose concept of a man's transformation into a coyote. The majority of the songs seem unrelated to the central idea though.

"Man vs. Machine" is one of the highlights of the album featuring a great keyboard solo by Johnny Richards, and a driving groove from bassist Michael Burdon. The follow-up track "Not I" is another highlight, with horn stabs propelling the song forward, as Noonan sings about "jumping into a pool of ketchup."

The title track drives into a heavy disjointed groove, featuring bass, strings, and keyboard flowing in and out as Noonan's drums lead the show. After one minute the rhythm stops for a freer abstract avant-garde section before the pounding groove once again returns. The loud-quiet dynamic is an excellent way of making the original beat hit harder the second time around. Man, No Longer Me suffers from a bit of filler, and lack of focus. The innuendo-filled "Pussy Cat's Gone Wild" is an example of the filler that plagues the album. The song would work best as an entertaining 2-minute interlude, due to the comedic but banal lyrics and lackluster groove compared the experimentation throughout the album. But Noonan stretches the concept out to around 6 minutes. To Noonan's credit, he does add an interesting instrumental section at the 3-minute mark, to vary the track up.

"I Am Your Pineapple" suffers from the same problems that "Pussy Cat's Gone Wild" does, but on a much larger scale, since it lacks the instrumental freak out that saves "Pussy Cats Gone Wild."

As mentioned before, the overall concept of the album is hard to recognize as Noonan goes in so many different directions. The record is quite lengthy at 66 minutes so Noonan could have afforded to cut a couple of pieces.

Noonan's unique vocal tone and delivery could also turn off some listeners, but his voice does add a particular character to his songs.

Overall, despite some filler and length issues, Noonan's willingness to experiment makes Man No Longer Me one the most eclectic releases this year.