You Should Know by Now

With this release, Barbara Manning made her debut recording with the Go-Luckys!, one of several groups she's fronted or been a part of since beginning her career. It was superior punk-poppish indie rock, with a harder rocking edge than some of her folkier recordings have employed. Her songs (often co-written with others, or, in the case of the instrumental "Boston Song," wholly written by Go-Luckys! Fabrizio and Flavio Steinbach) were wary negotiations of romance and the trials of coping with loneliness and pressure. They differed from many other indie rockers combing the same territory in that they remained open to better times and better situations, rather than reveling in or retreating into alienated postures. She was actually most effective when she got more specific and direct about her frustrations, as on "Never Made Love" and "Incapable," which had the best tunes of any of the songs on the record as well. Jeff Palmer's musical saw added occasionally goofy ambience that was rather at odds with the mostly somber outlook of the album.