With a startlingly personal performance from pop/rock singer/songwriter Manny Cabo, the acclaimed player previously featured on The Voice delivers some of his most vulnerable lyrics thus far in “All Night Again,” his latest single out this summer. Structured around a profoundly evocative lead vocal from Cabo, whose demeanor is exceptionally approachable here, “All Night Again” dazzles with melodic virtuosities but stops far short of overindulgence on any front. With nothing more than a couple of select tools and a surreal canvas atop which he paints a beautifully simplistic picture, this player offers up one of the more emotional songs I’ve had the pleasure the pleasure of reviewing this month.
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The harmony between the vocal and the keys in this track is absolutely glowing from start to finish and, in my opinion, definitely as much of a centerpiece as any one of these verses are. There are some moments in which Cabo is putting so much color into his lyrics that the piano is incapable of matching the sheer emotionality of his performance, but this never creates an uneven contrast in his delivery. He’s very focused here, and with the kind of discipline he’s sporting it’s really no surprise why he’s stood out among his peers as much as he undisputedly has.
Manny Cabo is pretty conservative with his vocal range in “All Night Again,” but I wouldn’t say that he’s holding back from being as passionate as he can with the mic in his hands. The oomph that he puts into every word he sings in this single really puts an extra dollop of gusto into the lyrics that simply wouldn’t have been present had a different vocalist been at the helm. He’s got a unique style that’s becoming increasingly identifiable as his own, and with more room to cultivate his other skills, it’s hard to imagine mainstream audiences ignoring his output.
Even with the lack of percussion in this track, there’s a sense of rhythm beneath the harmony thanks to the physicality of Cabo’s vocal. There’s nothing churning or groove-laden in “All Night Again,” but with a spellbinding voice like our leading man’s as the primary focal point, there isn’t any need to dance to this song. Manny Cabo is crooning in the style of the greats in more ways than one in this most recent studio dispatch, and his adeptness is quite telling of what we can expect out of his camp in the future.
There’s no question that Manny Cabo has already demonstrated a lot of raw skill in both his studio work and his performances on The Voice, but in “All Night Again,” he sounds a little more refined than he has in his previous efforts. He’s swaggering but not coming even close to arrogant territory, and for a pop singer of his talent caliber, that’s something people should really take note of. I like where his creative trajectory is taking him right now, and if he can continue to produce on this level, good things are going to come his way.
Garth Thomas