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Old 18-03-2016, 23:45
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darkanddivine darkanddivine is offline
Winterlover
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Wolfland
Posts: 6,982
I was probably not quite at peak fandom by KYE (for me that was probably 04-07,) but I had followed the band for a good few years at this point. I was a bit of a teeny bopper to be fair, pretty much all over anything they did at the time.

I remember the buzz leading up to the album with that Intravenous Agnostic clip on the website. The whole thing was very cool, and there was a sense that the band were heading back to a bare bones rock album. Obviously it was bare bones in many ways, but not in a 10 rock bangers kind of way.

Of course, it is what it is for a reason and it all forms part of the story of the Manics. Not everything can be perfect, and sometimes going down a different path keeps things interesting. Miss Europa fits on no MSP album ever frankly, but it is bloody brilliant on its own.

Overall, KYE is so bonkers that I can take or leave it depending on my mood. Because of the way it is kinda thrown together, it is a tough listen although moments shine through. I'd love to argue it showed the Manics what they should or shouldn't be, but they then went and made Lifeblood and hated that too.

I think most of us have had a go at a re-tracklist of it to turn it into a listenable album, and I still think Masking Tape, Just a Kid, and Locust Valley should all have been on there. With those, you start to get the semblance of a gritty, but still different rock album. The problem is that it loses its common thread very quickly and that is something that all the other Manics albums have. From that era, the likes of Close My Eyes, Masses, Found that Soul, and others actually knit really well together, so I tend to see it as an opportunity missed, albeit a very interesting one.
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