Which album do you reckon the Manics HATE the most?

[sculptureofabloke]

Give it a week, Wire will post his top 10 on the official site.

[MSPKYE]

Easily Lifeblood, its the beaten stepchild of the Manics family, unloved and neglected, even though it is a genuinely great album

[Mr.Selfdestruct]

Is it just me or is Lifeblood recorded at a higher volume than any other manics album? It always seems louder than the others.

It's hardly THB as it's a billion times better than any other album

Truth i'd say

[River Boy]

I think Nicky hates Lifeblood, but the band as a whole I'd say hates Gold Against the Soul most perhaps followed by Know Your Enemy.

I disagree that Lifeblood songs sound bad live, but I do think they look a little nervous of performing them. They listen to the press too much; it was a media backlash caused by the fact that it took people a while to realise no one liked Know Your Enemy considering they were still considered popular when it was released. The music press knew it should have attacked KYE more and so looked to attack Lifeblood instead, knowing many of the fans who had fallen away would listen.

[Abstract Unknown Girl]

Originally Posted by Kieslowski

Yeah, I used to have MP3s of both tracks, with a couple of girls clearly having worked out what the chorus for SSI was pretty quickly.

Is that the one with "Oh no! It was true then!" at the start? I'm pretty sure I know which former FDer it was who said that

I'd say Lifeblood. I don't even think it's about the album not being well received; the way they talk about the actual songs sometimes makes it seem like they think they went about it all the wrong way. They seem to have divided themselves into THB/JFPL or EMG/SATT/PFAYM these days and Lifeblood doesn't fit into either category.

[Kieslowski]

Originally Posted by Abstract Unknown Girl

Is that the one with "Oh no! It was true then!" at the start? I'm pretty sure I know which former FDer it was who said that

I'd say Lifeblood. I don't even think it's about the album not being well received; the way they talk about the actual songs sometimes makes it seem like they think they went about it all the wrong way. They seem to have divided themselves into THB/JFPL or EMG/SATT/PFAYM these days and Lifeblood doesn't fit into either category.

Yeah, that's the one!

So spill then

[counterlanguage]

It's got to be Lifeblood, considering how quickly they swept it under the carpet and have hardly ever touched tracks from it at gigs ever since. That's got to be a clue.

[The Crow]

KYE was done probably the quickest to produce than any of the other LP's

I personally think Lifeblood is excellent in terms of a 'pop' lp, I found it to be very different than any of their other previous material. I certainly admit & say its not performed well live, why because pop songs are not good live best left on the CD etc Empty Souls is good Live

Personally you take away the 2 singles they always play from GT & it tells you alot

[Porco]

Originally Posted by counterlanguage

It's got to be Lifeblood, considering how quickly they swept it under the carpet and have hardly ever touched tracks from it at gigs ever since. That's got to be a clue.

Or maybe it's just the album that's hardest to play live.

I think they probably hate the commercial failure of Lifeblood, but I think if they confuse that with artistic failure it's a shame. They seem to flip-flop between just saying 'it went wrong with Lb' and 'Lb flopped, but we still like it/some of it'. I get the impression that more than anything they are just a bit embarrassed that it flopped commercially rather than really hating it. That and they're not going to sit around defending the one that flopped when promoting other albums, might put people off.

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by Porco

Or maybe it's just the album that's hardest to play live.

I think they probably hate the commercial failure of Lifeblood, but I think if they confuse that with artistic failure it's a shame. They seem to flip-flop between just saying 'it went wrong with Lb' and 'Lb flopped, but we still like it/some of it'. I get the impression that more than anything they are just a bit embarrassed that it flopped commercially rather than really hating it. That and they're not going to sit around defending the one that flopped when promoting other albums, might put people off.

About the commercial/artistic failure thing... in his interviews for the Holy Bible DVD Nicky mentions the freedom to fail they had making that and he points out that he's talking about the freedom of artistic failure. I'm sure they're aware of the difference but I suppose after the luke warm reception Know Your enemy got and their reactions to it - no production vs. heavy production vis a vis the Greatest Hits songs - the two types of failure blended into the one.

Originally Posted by River Boy

I think Nicky hates Lifeblood, but the band as a whole I'd say hates Gold Against the Soul most perhaps followed by Know Your Enemy.

I disagree that Lifeblood songs sound bad live, but I do think they look a little nervous of performing them. They listen to the press too much; it was a media backlash caused by the fact that it took people a while to realise no one liked Know Your Enemy considering they were still considered popular when it was released. The music press knew it should have attacked KYE more and so looked to attack Lifeblood instead, knowing many of the fans who had fallen away would listen.

Very good point. They do pay too much attention to press but hey, this it eh Manics we're talking about! They made a name courting the music press.

You're definitely right about the attention Know Your Enemy got and the critics could've probably been even more vicious.

Originally Posted by Abstract Unknown Girl

Is that the one with "Oh no! It was true then!" at the start? I'm pretty sure I know which former FDer it was who said that

I'd say Lifeblood. I don't even think it's about the album not being well received; the way they talk about the actual songs sometimes makes it seem like they think they went about it all the wrong way. They seem to have divided themselves into THB/JFPL or EMG/SATT/PFAYM these days and Lifeblood doesn't fit into either category.

Another good point. Nicky spoke of how Nixon started out as an 80s alt/indie pop a la REM or something and it transformed into some grotesque mish/mash or whatever.

I don't know about this dividing themselves into Holy Bible/Journal and Everything Must Go/Tigers/Postcards. It's a big egotistical and nonsensical of them is it not? As someone said, just play the damn tunes! Sonically Know Your Enemy is closer to Journal than Holy Bible - the Welsh mixes as least cause the US mix is a different beast.

[Littlesue]

I think its Lifeblood, but more for the fact that they were embarrased by poor sales as opposed to thinking it was any good or not. Non of the tracks are that good live which probably does'nt help. Lifeblood got fairly decent reviews, I remember Good Housekeeping giving it 5 stars!.

[exopotamie]

This interview from Filter last year talks about their thoughts on each of the albums a bit.

[Tetsuo]

Originally Posted by Littlesue

I think its Lifeblood, but more for the fact that they were embarrased by poor sales as opposed to thinking it was any good or not. Non of the tracks are that good live which probably does'nt help. Lifeblood got fairly decent reviews, I remember Good Housekeeping giving it 5 stars!.

You obviously haven't heard Empty Souls from Isle of Wight, Everything Will Be from Glastonbury 2003 and I thought 1985 sounded good from the Japan gig they did.

You're right though on the reviews, they did seem to get good reviews but that's more a daming indictment of shite reviewers than anything else. I think Cat Deeley said it was their best since This is My Truth. YEah whatever... (I do like the album in a way though)


This little bit by Wire is very interseting:




I didn't know it was going to be two separate albums - Bruce Springsteen tried that and it didn't go down to well. I'd be interested in a re-release, maybe a box set with two separate albums with separate new artwork and a DVD of them playing them live in a studio or something. No need for demos as most of the songs are already demos. It was their Sandinista!

[Littlesue]

Originally Posted by Tetsuo

You obviously haven't heard Empty Souls from Isle of Wight, Everything Will Be from Glastonbury 2003 and I thought 1985 sounded good from the Japan gig they did.

You're right though on the reviews, they did seem to get good reviews but that's more a daming indictment of shite reviewers than anything else. I think Cat Deeley said it was their best since This is My Truth. YEah whatever... (I do like the album in a way though)

Yes I remember the Isle of wight version of Empty Souls, that was pretty good.

[Colinzeal]

KYE and Lifeblood are two of my favourite albums. Both have flaws, Know your enemy should be 4 tracks shorter and Lifeblood has a couple of dreadful tracks, but I think they are great. Shame there is such a downer on them.

I like in that Filterarticle how Nicky says 1985 and I live to fall asleep are two of his favourite Manics songs, definately 2 of mine!