View Single Post
  #169  
Old 22-09-2020, 21:32
Tim's Avatar
Tim Tim is offline
Winterlover
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: ...my fathers can have it.
Posts: 5,839
I kinda like bounced off journal when it came out, maybe i was expecting something that hewed a lot closer to the holy bible than it did. I think also the editing of richey's words to fit them into the music left a bit of a sour taste compared to how dense the bible is where they'd fit the music into the words. I hated william's last words for it being edited to imply meaning completely different to the original typed prose but i came to accept that he left these words for them to turn into songs and if his close friend achieved some catharsis doing this then so be it. Then a few years later it really clicked for me and i wouldn't hesitate to put it towards the top of my favourites so lucas needs to give both albums some time then they'll flower for him like they have for us (though i doubt it).

So i don't really see this as holy bible v2.0, it's certainly a spiritual successor but there's not as much bleakness on here as that granite obelisk of an album. The songs are of a troubled mind sure but there's so much dark humour, it reads to me like a version of richey having exorcised his demons through holy bible and coming out the other side and seeing the morbid humour in the people he is surrounded by while recovering. I can't honestly say i'm reading the last words of someone who is planning something drastic, the holy bible gives me that impression but not this.

I did really admire their almost low key approach to promoting this with no singles and playing the album in full was absolutely the way to go (wish they'd played bag lady) even though i got the impression that nicky wasn't entirely happy, the twice i saw it played lived he was very subdued during the first half. Which ya can understand but it was great being a fan because it did feel a bit like they were a four-piece again and not including any tracks in subsequent gigs is appropriate i think despite how much i would have enjoyed hearing them.

Glad you brought up nicky saying he wanted to burn the album after mastering it and james telling him to fuck right off after all the work he put into it, i distinctly remember that but not sure if it was in print or on camera while being interviewed.

Good shout out to the girl from tiger bay by simon, it's such a fantastic track and so very manics slipping in a bit of situationist international. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3Y9bVGtW0Q
__________________
Please, he prayed, now -
A gray disk, the colour of Chiba sky.
Now -
Disk beginning to rotate, faster, becoming a sphere of paler gray. Expanding -
And flowed, flowered for him, fluid neon origami trick, the unfolding of his distanceless home, his country, transparent 3D chessboard extending to infinity.
Inner eye opening to the stepped scarlet pyramid of the Eastern Seaboard Fission Authority burning beyond the green cubes of Mitsubishi Bank of America,
and high and very far away he saw the spiral arms of military systems, forever beyond his reach.
And somewhere he was laughing, in a white-painted loft, distant fingers caressing the deck, tears of release streaking his face.

Last edited by Tim; 22-09-2020 at 23:03.
Reply With Quote