New Man was a slick and precise Boston band who performed dance rock in the mid-'80s. Not as avant-garde as their contemporaries November Group, the self-titled album became more a platform for the individual talents of the bandmembers. Without the commercial songs which catapulted ABC, Culture Club, Spandau Ballet, and similar acts to superstardom, this debut disc stood little chance of success. Everything is recorded and performed to perfection -- a song like "Way Over There" is as emotionless as "Beautiful Rose" or "Bad Boys." What the band really needed was to latch onto a solid cover, as Stories did with "Brother Louie," a title that could bring this listenable and highly danceable album out of the cutout bins. Scott Gilman's "Say Your Prayers" and Tim Archibald's "Love Real" are two of the more memorable pieces, but there is nothing extraordinary that jumps out and makes one crazy to buy the record. "She Can't Let Him Go" has the machine-like thumps that the Rings put into "Let Me Go," but the difference in those two songs is the difference between a potential hit and a song that is just average. Producer Joe Mardin appears to have recognized the individual talents of the bandmembers, with Bob Gay and others appearing on the Bee Gees' E.S.P. album that he also produced, while Tim Archibald hooked up with a Boston band who did climb the Top 40, RTZ and their album Return to Zero. The New Man project is likeable enough -- certainly not a bad record -- but it's not a disc by the Cars or Tracy Chapman, either. New Man might be the purest example of the importance of the song as a vehicle and the lack of a breakthrough hit immobilizing years of hard work. Scott Gilman and Mark Jones do not possess remarkable or distinctive voices either, which added to the dilemma. An instrumental version of this disc could have been fun. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide
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