Jack Manley is a grizzled veteran music, whose career has proven to be the embodiment of resilience and rebirth: He has played in a number of projects, including Cosmonaut, The Jennifer Shop, and Spires. While touring in those projects, Manley struggled with depression and addiction.
When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and the world came to a grinding halt, Manley spiraled downward. Two near-fatal overdoses served as a wake-up call that propelled him back to music. In the confines of a Poughkeepsie hospital room, armed with a broken guitar and sheer determination, Manley began to craft melodies from the threads of his experiences.
Fueled by a hard-won, newfound clarity, Manley reunited with his childhood friend, classically trained guitarist Billy Pierson. Andy Idol (bass), Josh Eppard (drums) and Noah Sonenstein (drums) were recruited to be the grizzled indie artist’s backing band and collaborated. Since then, Manley and his backing band play regularly for audiences in and around Woodstock, NY.
Earlier this year, I wrote about “Save Your Own,” a remarkably catchy song that nodded at The Beatles, Elvis Costello and the like while revealing a slick combination of earnestness and lived-in experience. Building upon the momentum of “Save Your Own,” Manley returns with “Grow Up,” a 90s grunge-like anthem that recalls Pablo Honey-era Radiohead featuring distortion pedaled power chords, enormous raise-your-beer-in-the-air-and-shout-along worthy hooks and choruses paired with Manley’s plaintive delivery.
Anchored around a classic grunge song structure of alternating quiet verses and loud choruses, the song is arguably one of the most personal song Manley has ever written: The song sees the Kingston, NY-based artist reflecting on his life’s journey through young adulthood, addiction and loss. Thematically, the song explores Manley’s need to desperately take control of his life, a message directed at himself as he continues to navigate adulthood and sobriety. Initially dismissed as a rambling note to himself, the song’s words resurfaced after Manley’s father died from COVID in 2022. And in some way, the song unexpectedly echoes his feelings of grief and loss.
Ultimately, the song captures the complexity of adult life, of maneuvering through a life of sobriety and the grief of loss with lived-in bitterness, heartache and resolve.