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Manic Street Preachers continue

Started by Mark Steels Stockbroker, February 22, 2018, 08:13:30 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Mark Steels Stockbroker

Yet another album, I think they're up to 13 now.

The most startling thing is remembering that Postcards was supposed to be their "last shot at mass communication"... and it was 8 years ago.

Beyond that, interviews confirm Nicky Wire is a bland middle-aged successful graduate with dull opinions he read in a newspaper. That's what he always was, but at least when they were slagging off The Levellers and every other indie band they were competing with there was some entertainment in it. Now there's only the sub-U2 music.

itsfredtitmus

it's funny how such a left wing band can make music that sounds so cent... never mind

Icehaven

I loved the Manics when I was a teenager (20ish years ago) but I haven't stuck with them at all, lost interest around the If You Tolerate This... era (although that was OK.) I've got a friend the same age as me who's still as avid as ever though and it still surprises me slightly when I see her mentioning on fb that she's off to see them again. I guess she just has a better attention span than most of us. Have they got much of a younger fan base? 

Vodka Margarine

I haven't taken an overt interest over the past... what is it now, five albums?...  I don't expect to break the cycle this time round but 'International Blue' is a cracking little pop song. That's really what they do best, like when Primal Scream decide to fuck off the Jagger fixation and go back to sprawling psychedelic krautrock every ten years or so.

purlieu

I loved both Rewind the Film and (particularly) Futurology, both of which found them doing new things and being interesting and atmospheric and rather melancholic, which is probably my favourite side of the band. The two singles from the new album sound like they're going back to the Postcards sound again which doesn't really interest me much though.

Vodka Margarine

You see, I would probably say the complete inverse of that.  It might be an uncool opinion but I think big miserablist anthems with slightly clunky lyrics that don't quite scan is where they seem most comfortable and effective. It's why I really enjoyed a good two thirds of 'Send Away The Tigers' where most fans didn't. Having said that, 'Postcards From A Young Man' bored me senseless.

purlieu

I do think they do big choruses well, to be fair. I love 'Walk Me to the Bridge'. But then I might be the only Manics fan on the planet who wouldn't have a single Richey-era album in their top five Manics records.

Dr Syntax Head

I still love the Manics. It's always mainly been about James Dean Bradfield for me though. I'll always buy their records because they always give me something.

gilbertharding

I didn't like them when they were (supposedly) shocking young upstarts in make up.
I didn't like them when they were just sub-GnR glam.
I never bought any of their obviously concocted opinions about Slowdive.
I liked them even less when that NME story came out about Richey hiring a prostitute in Bangkok (like the garden-variety hypocrite I am).
Didn't mind some of their Britpop tunes. Admired the way they made the words Kevin Carter into eight syllables...
Never trust a drummer who wears those fingerless grip gloves.
Nicky Wire's tragic role as the last remaining weirdo hold-out.

itsfredtitmus

i wonder how many generation terrorist fans would stick their nose up at gnr

Paaaaul

Quote from: itsfredtitmus on February 22, 2018, 03:45:53 PM
i wonder how many generation terrorist fans would stick their nose up at gnr
I saw them just before that album came out, and they were doing a G'n'R song in their live set.

Kane Jones

Nicky Wire once said if he could only listen to one album for the rest of his life, it would be Appetite For Destruction.

Icehaven

Quote from: itsfredtitmus on February 22, 2018, 03:45:53 PM
i wonder how many generation terrorist fans would stick their nose up at gnr

Not many. Given that Manics fans tended to hang off every word the band said (and that's not meant disparagingly, I was one myself) getting into their much-cited influences was almost compulsory. There were plenty of fans sporting GnR Tshirts at the many 90's/2000s Manics gigs I went to. I blame my longstanding love of The Clash partly on them too (and the 1991 re-release of Should I Stay Or Should I Go).

Vodka Margarine

The production, mixing, arrangements, guitar, bass, drums and art work on AFD all still stand up.

Kane Jones

Quote from: Vodka Margarine on February 22, 2018, 04:53:04 PM
The production, mixing, arrangements, guitar, bass, drums and art work on AFD all still stand up.

Aye, it's a great timeless rock n' roll album. Only the synth line on the intro to Paradise City dates it to the late 80s.

Vodka Margarine

The Manics also introduced me to quite a lot of 80s indie stuff I would not have otherwise heard of, mainly via various cover versions tucked away as bonus tracks and B-sides.

Icehaven

Quote from: Vodka Margarine on February 22, 2018, 05:47:23 PM
The Manics also introduced me to quite a lot of 80s indie stuff I would not have otherwise heard of, mainly via various cover versions tucked away as bonus tracks and B-sides.

Like this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UDB9oCgVHGw

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

Has anyone ever heard the drummer speak? In fact does anyone know anything about him at all? I think he's called Shaun.


Shoulders?-Stomach!

The best era of the band was quite clearly the late 90s with some more mechanically put together competent songs from 99-04.

I could count the amount of good songs they've written since Lifeblood on the fingers of both hands so I'm about done with them as far as new stuff goes.

Dr Rock

Quote from: gilbertharding on February 22, 2018, 03:25:16 PM
I liked them even less when that NME story came out about Richey hiring a prostitute in Bangkok

Something that rarely gets a mention.

Jockice

And his quote about every man wanting to have sex with a 13-year-old girl....

Dr Syntax Head

He's gone now so it's history.

JDB is objectively one of the best musicians in rock. His vocals, his songwriting, his amazing guitar playing, his humility in the face of his brilliance. For this primarily I'm a very loyal Manics fan.

Elderly Sumo Prophecy

He is also very good at playing the guitar whilst spinning around on one leg.

Dr Syntax Head

Quote from: Elderly Sumo Prophecy on February 25, 2018, 06:56:41 PM
He is also very good at playing the guitar whilst spinning around on one leg.

I was genuinely overjoyed when he did that the time I saw them. He was doing the solo from Motown Junk at the time and it was glorious.

non capisco

#25
I'm mixed on their output to say the least but I've always greatly admired James Dean Bradfield's ability to yell and scream on pitch. I consider myself an alright singer and I can't get comfortably close to the notes that motherfucker hits on something like 'La Tristessa Durera'. I can ape Mike Patton's more operatic histrionics but sincerely singing '4st7lbs' is completely beyond me.

I understand why they could never be the same band again after Richie vanished into the ether but also mourn that there was never anything as exciting after 1994 as JDB hollering "Wash your car in your X baseball shoes!" The Holy Bible is a uniquely queasy and unsettling beast with an undeniably thrilling 'last roll of the dice' rocket up its arse.

itsfredtitmus

4st 7lbs is supposed to be all dark and brooding but the chorus sounds like queen

manticore

I'm very grateful to this group for helping me stop listening to rock music in the 1990s. Dullard clod-hopping contoversialists, even worse than Oasis. Sort of group who'd make a record called something like 'Generation Terrorists' or 'Motorcycle Emptiness'. Really that bad.


Shaky

Quote from: Dr Syntax Head on February 25, 2018, 06:28:56 PM
He's gone now so it's history.

JDB is objectively one of the best musicians in rock. His vocals, his songwriting, his amazing guitar playing, his humility in the face of his brilliance. For this primarily I'm a very loyal Manics fan.

Indeed. I'm happy if I find a handful of good - great songs on each new album now but Bradfield is a gem of a musician and seems like a very decent human being. The band will always get my respect for his presence alone. He even cancels out Nicky Wire!

I'd forgotten that Bradfield did a soundtrack last year so going to listen to that this afternoon, I think.