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They've done something I never thought would be possible - created an album that vies for the top spot with The Holy Bible. The more I listen to it, the more I love it. Unlike JFPL, there are no songs that I almost despise (She Bathed Herself...). I love the instrumentals (Dreaming of a City is on a par with the likes of Theme For Great Cities by Simple Minds, and even surpasses The Vorticists, I think); I still get a huge rush of euphoria listening to the chorus of Walk Me To The Bridge; Europa Geht Durch Mich will never get old; and there's just something so fantastically cohesive about it that I don't think they've achieved this well since THB. It's like THB distilled the best bands of 1977 - 1980, and Futurology distils the best bands of 1980 - 1984. Or something.
Straight in at number two, and may eventually become my favourite Manics album, depending on how much SPLAM grows on me over time. I could give it a 9 just to do that sort of "oh you can't give anything a 10 unless it's perfect" thing, but fuck it - if New Gold Dream by Simple Minds is a 10 (and it is), then so is this.
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"A man who had read all the books published today would have had to have read all Dan Brown's novels, two volumes of Chris Moyles autobiography, The World According To Clarkson by Jeremy Clarkson, The World According To Clarkson 2 by Jeremy Clarkson, The World According To Clarkson 3 by Jeremy Clarkson... His mind would be awash with bad metaphors, unsustainable reactionary opinion, and one long anecdote about the time Comedy Dave put pound coins in the urinal.
In short, the man who had read everything published today, would be more stupid than a man who had read nothing."
- Stewart Lee
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