Lifeblood reissue announced

[Routine Builder]

Found it a bit minimal in terms of remixes, don't see myself going back to it.

[tomd2103]

Originally Posted by Marat Sar

That Empty Souls video is gorgeous, always loved it. The woman in the jewellery shop, the white V-shaped guitar. Great aesthetics. Just not a good PR combination right after TLORN -- they probably should have kept the Twin Towers line and drawn some ire, would have worked better than without it. Dying flowers just turns it into a fully defeatist sigh of fuck-off, which is nice too. But it has more fire in it with that line, the way it is now in the video (cool to see and hear it that way at last!) -- you can better understand where they're coming from and why they're going.

Should have been: TLORN, 1985, Empty Souls.

Aesthetically beautiful, though, that video and pretty emotional too -- especially that Potstdamplatz. Who doesn't have eerie sad memories about Berlin? It's a city that seems to be made of them.

I still think choosing 'Nixon' as the lead off single was one of the worst decisions of their career. Wire seems to suggest in the interview that 'Rob' (presume that's Rob Stringer) had a hand in choosing it, which they have often said he did for 'Tolerate' as well
.

That worked out for them with 'Tolerate', but just don't think it did with 'Nixon'. I still think if 1985 had been the lead off single then the album would have fared better, as it was still a time when people bought albums off the back of a single.

[Marconi Delorian]

We all like to think a different lead off single would have made all the difference, but it wouldn't. They were out of fashion, NME and MM just wanted to put the boot in all the time. Know Your Enemy had killed off mainstream radio support and any chance of festival headline sets. They looked at this point to just be going in whatever direction interested them - Nicky threatened that they might go more electronic after Lifeblood! Of course they felt bruised following their worst chart placing since GT, so they had the break for solo stuff and decided to rehash the glory days instead with SATT. It was a canny move as the NME bought in to it, gave them good reviews and the Godlike Genius award etc. which gave them the confidence to continue.

[Son of Stopped]

Tomorrow it'll be about a week before the packages are delivered. Seemed like yesterday the thread got made. Seems like last year the album was originally released. It's been a long road and I'll pound the chest going "Don't give up on me now you bastard!" as passersby look on then move away.

[tomd2103]

Originally Posted by Marconi Delorian

We all like to think a different lead off single would have made all the difference, but it wouldn't. They were out of fashion, NME and MM just wanted to put the boot in all the time. Know Your Enemy had killed off mainstream radio support and any chance of festival headline sets. They looked at this point to just be going in whatever direction interested them - Nicky threatened that they might go more electronic after Lifeblood! Of course they felt bruised following their worst chart placing since GT, so they had the break for solo stuff and decided to rehash the glory days instead with SATT. It was a canny move as the NME bought in to it, gave them good reviews and the Godlike Genius award etc. which gave them the confidence to continue.

Good point about the music press, who definitely had it in for them at that point. I do remember '1985' getting universally good reviews though and it might have carried the album for more sales.

I still to this day don't know how they didn't go with it as the lead single.

[theplague]

1985 or A Song For Departure. If thinking commercially.

[Marconi Delorian]

Nice review from SDE

[IntlDebris]

I remember the album leaking and most of the fanbase loathing it at the time, which will have played a very big part in it charting so badly. Combined with a lot of poor reviews, it was never going to do well. That said, I think a different single might have given it at least a bit more of a boost.

[counterlanguage]

I can see why Stringer & the record company went for TLORN, it's got a punchier opening and more obvious melody than 1985 so they'd be thinking it'd catch on more quickly on radio. 1985 would've needed a serious remix to be more radio friendly back then.

I don't think the fanbase reaction to leaks made much difference really, in reality that only amounted to a small amount of sales compared to more casual buyers. They'd lost interest with KYE, then TLORN as a lead single - I remember quite a few people saying it wasn't very good who'd bought Manics stuff before - and the poor reviews.

It was always going to need something like YLAINE to get more people back into the band.

[Routine Builder]

Originally Posted by IntlDebris

I remember the album leaking and most of the fanbase loathing it at the time, which will have played a very big part in it charting so badly. Combined with a lot of poor reviews, it was never going to do well. That said, I think a different single might have given it at least a bit more of a boost.

It charted at no.2 so not terrible. It's a memorable single and it stands out head shoulders above the People Give In's, Indian Summer's and Autumn Song's. With the exception of Europa, this was the last time the Manics took a risk with their singles and personally I much prefer over the 'this is a Manics track' approach of years since which hides the ecleptivenss of their albums.

[theplague]

I much prefer the 'this is a Manics track' approach which hides the ecleptivenss of their albums, and instead lure people into hearing all those songs that they won’t with weaker but artistically “more interesting” choices for tracks as singles.

But I guess we already get each other’s point by now
I totally get where you come from, just not agreeing.

[Dac X Lee]

Personally, I was surprised at how deep James' voice was, when it comes to The Love of Richard Nixon back then. ^^"
Not that it sounds bad, or anything (on the opposite), just unusual.

That song was such a daring move.

[Son of Stopped]

James's voice sounds really weird on Empty Soul's chorus. Like everything evil is channeling through him! Only really noticed listening to 2004 version. The remaster might even be able to hear his eyes going completely black.

Do you think the FD compilation and Lipstick Traces added to the backlash?
5 days to go.

[counterlanguage]

FD didn't go down particularly well with the fanbase because of the tracklisting being biased towards EMG/TIMT. Plus a largely pointless set of remixes on CD2 of the limited edition. But then again it's ended up selling 600,000 copies.

If anything, LT helped to redress the backlash to FD.

The gap between albums didn't help though. There was a distinct feeling of "it's been 3 years since KYE and this is what you came up with?" across the board in reviews, etc. And as much as I had the album on repeat for the first week or so, I remember that fizzled out quickly.

[Routine Builder]

I've always found James's voice on Lifeblood to be nasally and restrained. You can really feel he wants go full tilt with some songs like A Song For Departure but just keeps the dial at 5