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"Rock N Glow" Review (from Frontiers magazine)

Mantle
Rock N Glow EP
(Self-released)

In the grand tradition of David Bowie and Adam Ant comes Mantle--Kelly Mantle, that is. An androgynously beautiful singer-actor, Mantle has been a staple in the Hollywood scene for the past several years, his gender-warped persona having lent itself to not only the band Sex With Lurch and a solo project (under his full name, Mantle released 2002's mostly acoustic "Ever Changing"), but to film, television, and print projects as well. (That was him you saw as a transsexual police informant on "NYPD Blue" and as a glammed-out pedestrian in a Toyota RAV-4 ad campaign.) Having put together a full band, Mantle has since renamed his act. The band's first effort, the six-song EP "Rock N Glow," recalls Mantle's musical heroes and establishes him as an influential artist in his own right.

Armed with a knack for composing great pop melodies and emotionally incisive lyrics, Mantle fronts his rhythm section like a prophet passing on the secrets for a long and happy life. It's hard not to find comfort in the tales of emotional woe and hopeless devotion relayed here: The hard-driving "Sabotage" shows Mantle pondering a move to outer space to escape the curse of being a "commitment-phobic love addict," while the supple "Come Home" finds him pleading for a lover to do just that with gorgeous lyrics like, "The second verse is harder than the first/'Cuz it takes a lot of beers to practice what you rehearse/And the truth of your reason gets lost in the rhythm of your rhyme/And the jukebox gets lost in the back of your mind."

Mantle turns his attention to Hollywood on the smooth-groove anthem "Spotlight," his indictment of show biz falsity ("Art is why I get up in the morning/But by nightfall I'm still marketing/The scraps you see of me/Have you bought my CD?"), and "Starstruck Obsession" ponders an apparent breakup with a closeted, married Hollywood actor who remains unnamed. With stellar production, the songs take on an almost ethereal, otherworldly quality--a perfect match for Mantle's glittery individuality.

— Ken Knox