Album 15

[Tish]

I imagine the band will deal with it the way they have for the past 15 years, by talking about the new record and politely ignoring and deflecting any stupid questions about Richey that get dropped into an interview.

[Bartek Wyre]

I mean c'mon, it's 2024, the 80s nostalgia thing is a dead fad. The 90s and 00s seem to be all the rage now baby! And this only proves that the Manics have lost their touch with the zeitgeist they had back in their early days when they sounded like whatever was fashionable. Now they just sound unfashionable.

[Mumbojumbo]

Sadly MSP have fallen into the curse of the once cult, now popular touring band: release middling albums with low effort, the fans will buy it regardless of quality and laud it because they feel they have to.

They'll always sell out tours and concerts at middle class music festivals and we'll moan they played You Stole The Sun From My Heart. Again. And no Sleepflower. Again. And, oh look! Its The Anchoress! Again.

I'll remain optimistic but Decline and Fall is almost AI-generated Manics. It just lacks excitement. When was the last time they did something genuinely exciting or interesting? Plague Lovers? James' last solo album? Not even Sean's mid-life crisis is inspiring anything exciting.

[Routine Builder]

Originally Posted by rosetree

He was part of the band and it's not a big deal.

I shouldn't keep replying but I'm not enjoying trudging through Kafka's The Trial. Richey was not just a band member but a close friend who in one form or another ended their life. Not only do James, Nicky & Sean have to contend with losing a friend, they have also have to endure asking themselves what could've done differently that might have saved Richey from his demise. Every memory becomes an interrogation, a mirror telling you that you failed to prevent the obvious, when in reality people have control over the path they are walking down and ultimately responsible for themselves. Perhaps I'm talking more about myself here and using this in vain as therapy, but I'm not convinced this is miles away from how others might process these tragedies.

[savemejebus]

Originally Posted by Mumbojumbo

When was the last time they did something genuinely exciting or interesting? Plague Lovers? James' last solo album? Not even Sean's mid-life crisis is inspiring anything exciting.

Bandwise, I think RTF and Futurology were the last sparks of doing something interesting but lets be honest, the writing has been on the wall about the rot since Nicky's acoustic demo of 'it's not war' was butchered and overproduced until it turned into a Steps flavoured rip off of Everybody Dance.