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Manchild

I've always frowned on the practice of including two mixes of the same song on a 7" single; or worse, multiple versions on a 12" one. It's hardly ever happened that I want to listen to multiple arrangements of the same tune in succession. 'Manchild', Neneh Cherry's second 45 release, has 'Manchild (The Original Mix)' as its B-side. Not that it really matters, as I bought the record second-hand and very cheaply, and because I've always liked the song.

Apparently one of Cherry's first attempts at songwriting, it's a poignant ballad with a memorable melody. Some voices have a certain something in their timbre which just sit right somehow in one's ear, and for me, hers is such a one. The lyrics, a sketched portrait of the titular character, fall in a way that leads me to try to puzzle out a narrative from them when I listen to the track. Jean-Baptiste Mondino's video for the song is also a delight.

My copy has a worn & torn picture sleeve with a white label stuck on the front of it with "NENEH CHERRY /A. MANCHILD /B. MANCHILD" thereupon in dot-matrix print. Looking at the record's label we learn it was produced by 'Booga Bear and the Bubble Bunch', the former being the singer's husband Cameron McVey - while the latter might include some or all of the likes of Nellee Hooper, Tim 'Bomb the Bass' Simenon and Robert '3D' Del Naja, all of whom were involved in its making.

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