Manisha Shahane “when parallel lines meet” (Bridging Hemispheres, 2010)
Date review added: Friday, June 11, 2010
Reviewer: John Hawes
Reviewer's Rating: 7/10

Intricate multi lingual folk

Most musicians would put their most ambitious track somewhere in the middle of their album so as not to scare away the casual listener. Manisha Shahane puts hers at track one. 'Girls Gone World' contains lyrics both sung and spoken in eight languages (Sanskrit, Marathi, Hindi, Esan, English, French, German and Japanese) and instruments ranging from a Wurlitzer keyboard to an oud.

At the other end of the scale is the simplest track on 'When Parallel Lines Meet'; 'Mrs Underwood' conjures pictures of an idyllic childhood of lemonade and brownies followed by an adult life of war ships and missiles. Shahane’s clear voice is backed by sparse piano, drums, upright bass and acoustic guitar with just a hint of backing vocals.

In between these two extremes are tracks sung in both English and Hindi, tracks that sing of love and of struggle and of hope. They are all interesting and all engaging but never quite match up to either the simplicity of 'Mrs Underwood' or the complexity of 'Girls Gone World', leaving the album merely very good rather than exceptional.

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