Manchester Orchestra
Angel of Death (Acoustic)
Delicate and soft, ‘Angel of Death’ (acoustic version) is about as far away from my favourite Manchester Orchestra track as you can get. (It’s ‘Shake it Out’, by the way.) However, with the stripped-back presentation and the spotlight on the vocal, this has all the beauty of a Passenger track.
The original was drums, bass, muted guitar, and a soaring voice, but here we have a muted vocal and a guitar that flickers. We might not get the big chorus payoff, or that awesome transition back to the verse that were both features of the album version, but it’s a super-intimate performance.
Manchester Orchestra are one of those bands that need a second or third glance. This single will take you down a side-alley and back into The Million Masks of God, where you’ll find many great tracks that you didn’t realise were so good the first time around. You don’t find a chorus line like ‘I arrive, in the form of a radical being,’ very often, but that’s the kind of thing you get here.
It’s time to go back to April 2021s long-player and have another listen. I’m certainly glad I did. Now, did someone mention a tour? They hit the UK in September for shows in “the other” Manchester and London.
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