Barbara Manning is a mighty cool person, and her unassuming, folksy, thoughtful jangle-pop has attracted a sizable cult following that may soon be calling for my head on a pike, once they see the lukewarm rating I've given You Should Know by Now. (Or maybe not, since most of the Barbara Manning fans I've met are pretty mellow, but you never know.) But it would be truly dishonest of me to say that You Should Know by Now is anywhere near the quality of her past work. In fact, it's surprising that Manning has maintained such consistent quality over the years, what with her constant label-jumping and perennial backing-band changes. When she has the likes of the Verlaines' Graeme Downes or Calexico, as on 1212 and In New Zealand, she can be golden; similarly, the albums she recorded for Matador, both solo and with the SF Seals, have the virtue of larger budgets and more studio time.