Manna
View on Discogs
View on Wikipedia
Album Summary
Manna was the third studio album from Bread, dropped in September of 1971 on Elektra Records — and baby, when this record came out, it was clear these cats were operating at the absolute peak of their powers. Produced with meticulous care by the extraordinarily gifted David Gates, the album was crafted in Los Angeles during a time when Bread had become nothing short of a phenomenon on the airwaves. Gates brought his signature touch to every moment of this record — lush orchestral arrangements draped over songs of aching emotional honesty, the whole thing engineered with a warmth and precision that made it feel like the music was being played just for you in a candlelit room. Following the momentum of their earlier work, Manna arrived as a fully realized statement from a band that had found its voice and was absolutely singing from the soul.
Reception
- Manna climbed to number 21 on the Billboard 200, a testament to the enduring loyalty of Bread's fanbase even in the fiercely competitive landscape of early 1970s pop music.
- The luminous ballad 'If' emerged as one of the defining singles of the era, earning significant Top 5 placement on the Billboard Hot 100 and becoming one of the most recognizable songs in Bread's entire catalog.
- Critical response acknowledged the album's immaculate production and emotional sincerity, with some reviewers noting that Gates and the band were refining a winning formula rather than reinventing it — though few could argue with the results.
Significance
- Manna stood as a crown jewel of the sophisticated soft rock sound that was wrapping itself around FM radio in the early seventies, representing a moment when melody, orchestration, and emotional vulnerability were not just welcome but celebrated in mainstream pop.
- David Gates revealed himself on this album as one of the era's true master craftsmen — his ability to build a ballad from the inside out, layering strings and sentiment into something genuinely moving, set a standard that shaped the adult contemporary sound for years to come.
- With Manna, Bread cemented their standing as one of the premier commercial and artistic forces in early seventies pop, proving that music built on tenderness and melodic sophistication could hold its own against any sound coming out of that golden, turbulent era.
Tracklist
-
A1 Let Your Love Go 123
2:25
-
A2 Take Comfort 80
3:32
-
A3 Too Much Love 170
2:45
-
A4 If 96
2:33
-
A5 Be Kind To Me 91
3:03
-
A6 He's A Good Lad 145
2:57
-
B1 She Was My Lady 148
2:50
-
B2 Live In Your Love 155
2:46
-
B3 What A Change 82
3:38
-
B4 I Say Again 141
2:52
-
B5 Come Again 95
4:01
-
B6 Truckin' 129
2:31
Artist Details
Bread was a soft rock outfit that came together in Los Angeles around 1968, led by the impossibly gifted David Gates alongside James Griffin, Robb Royer, and later Mike Botts, cooking up some of the smoothest, most heartfelt pop-rock ballads the decade had ever heard — songs like Make It With You, Everything I Own, and If left a whole generation weak in the knees. They rode that sweet spot between folk-tinged pop and lush orchestrated soul, earning them a string of Top 40 hits and a devoted following who kept their records spinning from coast to coast. Bread may not have had the counterculture edge of their contemporaries, but they proved that pure, unashamed emotional songwriting was its own kind of revolution, and their sound became the very definition of that warm, golden 70s AM radio feeling.
