Best B Side from The PFAYM Era...

[The Gutless Wonder]

Forgot about Slow Reflections/Strange Delays so I shall add that to my list. It keeps popping into my head all the time!

[Phil C]

Best b-sides;

I Know The Numbers
Broken Up Again
Red Rubber
Engage With Your Shadow
Kiss My Eyes For Eternity

All the above are about equal for me, all for different reasons.

I don't include 'Midnight Sun' as it's not a 'Postcard€s' era track but it's pretty decent too.

Weakest b-side is possibly 'The Passing Show' or maybe 'I'm Leaving You For Solitude'.

[Phil C]

Originally Posted by roi

I just heard Engage With Your Shadow though, bloody hell. I really like it but if that's what their self-indulgent new direction is going to be like they'll get a lot of people's backs up.

There's no way the new direction will sound like 'Engage' but the uproar about it round here just suggests to me that a number of Manics fans are extremely musically conservative, and that maybe the reason the Manics have switched to only having two types of sound comes from the reaction of the fans whenever they try to do anything else, rather than from the band themselves. Which is a shame.

[chien andalusia]

Lost Voices & I Know The Numbers would both have fitted really well on the LP, but if the b-sides were always shittier than the albums, then looking forward to & buying the (multi-format) singles would be depressing & pointless. It would leave a long gap between albums with little to look forward to in my opinion.

[Futurologist]

Originally Posted by Phil C

There's no way the new direction will sound like 'Engage' but the uproar about it round here just suggests to me that a number of Manics fans are extremely musically conservative, and that maybe the reason the Manics have switched to only having two types of sound comes from the reaction of the fans whenever they try to do anything else, rather than from the band themselves. Which is a shame.

*mock offence mode on*Erm, I'm not musically conservative! *mock offence mode off*

I found EWYS not very tuneful, I like Nicky's lo-fi vocal range, but the spoken vocal on that record was not to my taste. The Manics can make music on tin kettles and record an album of farts if they want, but I am allowed to say I don't like it and indeed keep my money in my pocket. The band won't give a shit either way. They have stated that they want to be self indulgent, which is great, I hope they do what they want and not pander to fans.

EWYS is an interesting diversion, but if I got an album of that...well then...

[Porco]

Very good
Broken Up Again
Red Rubber
Distractions
(The live JFPL tracks on the digital EP if they count)

Good-Decent
I Know The Numbers
Ostopolitik
Kiss My Eyes For Eternity
Midnight Sun
Inky Fingers

Ok-ish
I'm Leaving You For Solitude
Evidence Against Myself
Lost Voices
Slow Reflections/Strange Delays
Time Ain't Nothing
The Passing Show


Utter Pants
Engage With Your Shadow

Originally Posted by Phil C

There's no way the new direction will sound like 'Engage' but the uproar about it round here just suggests to me that a number of Manics fans are extremely musically conservative, and that maybe the reason the Manics have switched to only having two types of sound comes from the reaction of the fans whenever they try to do anything else, rather than from the band themselves. Which is a shame.

That's like, your opinion man but I respectfully disagree. I suspect that it isn't the case people think 'Engage...' is poor because it's 'experimental' (which I really don't think it is, even within the Manics' own work). In my case at least it's just because think it's downright poor, regardless of style or intent. Even if it was 'experimental', which I don't think it is, that doesn't automatically make it good.

[Phil C]

Originally Posted by shug

*mock offence mode on*Erm, I'm not musically conservative! *mock offence mode off*

I found EWYS not very tuneful, I like Nicky's lo-fi vocal range, but the spoken vocal on that record was not to my taste. The Manics can make music on tin kettles and record an album of farts if they want, but I am allowed to say I don't like it and indeed keep my money in my pocket. The band won't give a shit either way. They have stated that they want to be self indulgent, which is great, I hope they do what they want and not pander to fans.

EWYS is an interesting diversion, but if I got an album of that...well then...

In fairness I should have been a little clearer. I didn't mean that if you dislike 'EWYS' that you're musically conservative, rather that the scale of some people's reactions to it suggest that there is a real streak of conservatism on this board. If someone dislikes the track that's absolutely fine, but it's all the 'It's the worst thing EVER' and the assumption that everyone must hate it (see, for example, the 'Worst Manics b-side' thread, the opening post of which assumes a lack of disagreement with EWYS taking the title) that just seems totally over the top to me.

[Phil C]

Originally Posted by Porco

That's like, your opinion man but I respectfully disagree. I suspect that it isn't the case people think 'Engage...' is poor because it's 'experimental' (which I really don't think it is, even within the Manics' own work). In my case at least it's just because think it's downright poor, regardless of style or intent. Even if it was 'experimental', which I don't think it is, that doesn't automatically make it good.

I actually agree with you that 'EWYS' isn't experimental, which is one of the reasons why the reaction to it seems to OTT. If it was a genuinely experimental track then I could understand why people are reacting as though the track isn't even music. But it isn't, so why are people reacting as though they've just released 'Metal Machine Music'? It's unusally discordent (for the Manics), the spoken word vocal is unusual (for the Manics)...but that's it. I mean, I dislike 'Askew Road' but I don't talk as though it isn't music and that the band should be embarassed about putting it out.

[Porco]

Originally Posted by Phil C

In fairness I should have been a little clearer. I didn't mean that if you dislike 'EWYS' that you're musically conservative, rather that the scale of some people's reactions to it suggest that there is a real streak of conservatism on this board. If someone dislikes the track that's absolutely fine, but it's all the 'It's the worst thing EVER' and the assumption that everyone must hate it (see, for example, the 'Worst Manics b-side' thread, the opening post of which assumes a lack of disagreement with EWYS taking the title) that just seems totally over the top to me.

Originally Posted by Phil C

I actually agree with you that 'EWYS' isn't experimental, which is one of the reasons why the reaction to it seems to OTT. If it was a genuinely experimental track then I could understand why people are reacting as though the track isn't even music. But it isn't, so why are people reacting as though they've just released 'Metal Machine Music'? It's unusally discordent (for the Manics), the spoken word vocal is unusual (for the Manics)...but that's it. I mean, I dislike 'Askew Road' but I don't talk as though it isn't music and that the band should be embarassed about putting it out.

Yeah, that's all fair enough really. I guess we just disagree on the tracks' merits. My initial reaction in the Postcards single thread (ferret farting in a lift etc... ) was just supposed to be a light-hearted way of saying I thought the track was really bad by Manics standards, and I stand by that opinion, but it's just that, my opinion. If you like it good for you, there's plenty of other Manics tracks people have been very rude about that I love, it's natural that there'll be some people who dislike almost any song really.

[The Quatercircle]

Not only was Red Rubber the best B-Side but it would have been the best song on PFAYM. Oh well.

[Pedro8]

Broken Up Again
Inky Fingers
Distractions

Like all the b-sides in their own way

[Dancing Kirby]

EWYS is shit because it's shit.

It's not poetry, it's a terrible lyric delivered terribly. A song lyric with a chorus. A chorus with the title repeated over and over. Same old same old, except this time they (he) did a feeble version of Suicide instead of Lenny Kravitz or Bruce Springsteen - and we're supposed to be any more impressed by the creativity? Please.

But what's worse is that it's another anti-technology rant from a man who tweets via his smart phone.

Better than Broken Up Again, tho...

[Matt_o_Mac]

I haven't heard "I Know The Numbers or the B side on the 7" from Postcards but I reckon Broken Up Again and Red Rubber

[Dancing Kirby]

Oh yeah, I forgot, 'I Know The Numbers' is the best b-side.

[Phil C]

Originally Posted by Dancing Kirby

EWYS is shit because it's shit.

It's not poetry, it's a terrible lyric delivered terribly. A song lyric with a chorus. A chorus with the title repeated over and over. Same old same old, except this time they (he) did a feeble version of Suicide instead of Lenny Kravitz or Bruce Springsteen - and we're supposed to be any more impressed by the creativity? Please.

But what's worse is that it's another anti-technology rant from a man who tweets via his smart phone.

Better than Broken Up Again, tho...

I don't think the lyric is too bad to be honest, I think some people are being over-sensitive about the anti-technology thing because they use technology and take it personally. Nick's said his lyrics on this issue aren't completely anti-technology anyway, that it's part of evolution. Being critical of something doesn't mean you're completely against it you know.

And to be honest, I prefer 'EWYS' to anything I've heard by Suicide.