I listened to the album on a 3 hr loop today during a drive returning from my JD Salinger-esque bunker and I think it works. Listening to the album all the way through, loud with a decent speaker does give the sense of a grand pop album. Plus it has that nostolgia/ pre-digital melancholia which I think is great.

I understand why people dislike it. It's a complete U-Turn from Journal for Plague Lovers, but honestly they aren't going to be able to turn out an album like that every year. Hopefully this sells well and converts a few new people over to the Manics.

And hopefully a North American Tour again...

If that doesn't describe Canada I don't know what does. More specifically its the Arcade Fire in a Nutshell. Sorry I had to throw in a dig when I get the chance.

But on a side note, this album is a good diversion from JFPL. I understand why some fans might dislike it, however they can't produce an album like that every year. This is a welcome distraction which, also is a solid album when played in entirely. Even I Think I Love It fits in the album when listened from start to finish.

I have to say I love the album as well...I think I found it surprised me allright, but it's growing on me...and I love Postcards fron a young man, Some kind of nothingness, and, actually, I love the whole album more and more...much more than Send away the tigers...

I think that in this age of pop-idol and x-factor etc, its possible that some people have lost the art of being able to appreciate a decent straightforward pop(ish) album. Writing an album of memorable, uplifiting songs is not an easy task. In fact, I think witing a decent 'happy' song is more difficult than writing an angry/sad song. For that reason I think that the songwriting on this album is basically as strong as it was on JFPL. The only song on that album that stands above anything on here is for me Marlon JD, as it is a successful song on so many levels (although conversely there's nothing as melodically strong on JFPL as the title track PFYM). I think albums should be critiqued in terms of their intentions. ie, it is not sensible to criticise the album for not musically adventurous or deep, if the music is not setting out to be deep. It seems some music critics set out thinking that a rock record should be judged against say Radiohead or Arcade Fire, or against their back catalogue, rather than judging a record on its own merits. Taken on its own merits, I think this album is as decent as JFPL, but not as decent as EMG or the Holy Bible.

Hmmm, see, I immediately like "Doors Closing Slowly." This just seems like it was aiming to be something else and didn't quite pull it off. To each his/her own, though -- and I love the album as well.

Hey guys could someone please link me the It's Not War video?
I have only seen the vid linked form the sony site or somethign which doesn't work in my area. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hRacII5WXpk
Should work, sorry if it doesn't work in Australia.

I can now safely say it.

Stunning myself first of all, my absolute favourite track from this record is "The Future Has Been Here 4 Ever". Yes, horrible title. Yes, Nicky's singing it.

But it's fucking good. Real good.

look people don't like JFPL because it's dark, or has lyrics written by Richey, or is The Holy Bible 2. what's great is that it's more than just The Holy Bible 2, the lightness of some of it is part of what makes it distinctly brilliant, and it's artistic success was entirely independent of Richey who obviously had nothing to do with constructing the record. people like JFPL because the songs are strong, JDB wrote some great music for it, and he did that last year. this idea that we should expect less of them because they're not using Richey's lyrics now is utter nonsense. nobody expects The Holy Bible 3. we do expect satisfying artistic progression that demonstrates the talent they so obviously still have.

you will find that most people who don't like PFAYM don't like it on those grounds. we think it's poor pop music. 'cos we're all well aware that we're not talking about a Radiohead here. the Manics have almost always been about pop/rock music, pretty straightforward stuff. in fact JFPL is pop music. it is verse-chorus-verse with funky riffs and catchy melodies. we love decent pop. some mega cheesy pop is a friend of ours. Postcards From A Young Man, we say, is not great pop.

they're not even trying to compete with the artists who are doing it to epic success. it's 2010. great straightforward pop music is Lady Gaga, who is a massively entertaining clusterfuck of fantastic tunes, taking the piss and having lots of sex. the music is synth pop so slick that it kills ducks and destroys beaches. Lady Gaga does mass communication. the Manics sound terminally naive in comparison to that. i'd say they've really made an album for people who love cheesy music as long as it's played on guitars, so fans can pretend that they're better than the sort of people who like X-factor and Lady Gaga and whatever.

you can't expect anyone to respect this album on the grounds of it successfully being shallow. in my opinion it's not even consistently doing what it intends to be doing based on how the epicness splutters out after the first side.

and if the album's biggest fans still can't unreservedly rank it up there with the band's biggest successes then they've still failed. you can't please all of the people all of the time but if this band is that great and worthy of respect, they should still be blowing some minds some of the time. the way defenders of this record talk is kind of damning in itself. the Manics should be doing more than releasing an album whose biggest fans would still rather listen to Everything Must Go.

Many thanks Pennyroyalty for making some very good points which I happen to agree with!

I think the biggest irony with the whole 'Mass Communication' thing is I'm pretty certain that if they're tried, they could have reached a wider audience with JFPL.

I also think Billion Balconies should have been the first single. They'll be making a massive mistake if they don't put out Some Kind of Nothingness next.

GT is arguably the least imaginative album they have made (given that they wanted to ape G'n'R and that's exactly what they did). And it's by far and away my favourite!

I have some sympathy with those who dislike PFAYM, as I went through all this with TIMTTMY (and KYE and LB, for that matter, but it was the first which hurt most). But, I can't agree, I'm afraid. I think it has tunes, passion, intelligence, a reason to exist and it bounces along very nicely. I love it!

There is some truth in what you say, pennyroyalty - apart from the slightly OTT praise for Lady Gaga. She might have three or four funky singles (when your pissed off your head, at least). But the rest is pretty poor. She is about selling records 1st, entertainment/fashion 2nd and music 3rd - nothing wrong with that.

I'm not claiming that PFYM is on the same level as THB or EMG, but I am saying that its in the same ball park as pretty much every other album they've made: always very good, occasionally amazing and the odd WTF? moment. PFYM is par for the course in that respect, which is why I'm defending it, not because its a work of staggering artisitc merit but because its another excellent manics album which is being unfairly derided because it doesnt quite reach the heights they last achieved way back in 1996 and 1994. If you truly consider this album poor pop music I'd love to know what, with the exception of YLA, you thought of SATT.

And I in no way rank JFPL up their with the bands biggest suceeses,as you put it. I considered JFPL as a return for form in the sense that it came after their worst album by some distance. JFPL had 3 or 4 wonderful tracks (Apples, JCQT, Marlon JD, Joke?), two or three almost great tracks spoilt by aimless shouty choruses (All is Vanity, Pretension, Bath Bleach) and a fair bit of averageness (Doors Closing, VSEC, Hawking).

Anyway, as far as I'm concerned, if you take the Richey inspired JFPL out of the equation (which I don't rate up there with their very best, although I know others do) and compare PFYM directly with its predecessor, SATT, then PFYM appears an absolute masterpiece. Hence my chirpiness.

and although I have nothing against Lady Gaga or her music, the fact that you can, with some accuracy, describe her as constituting "great straightforward pop music in 2010", merely demonstrates that in 2010 pop music - considered in the classic sense of pop songs that capture a moment but then stick around for decades, is well and truly fucked.

Those that don't like PFAYM are being a bit patronizing, aren't they?

Ok, that's perfectly fine. But thinking it's poor pop music doesn't make it poor pop music. I happen to think it's delightful pop music. Mere difference of taste and opinion.

That shows our massive difference of opinion. To me, Lady Gaga's massive success epitomizes what's wrong about pop music... The glorification of style over substance, the vapid "danceclub beat" fixation and so on. Nothing wrong about her music (it's not bad, I just find it kinda dull and totally uninteresting), but about people thinking it's the pinnacle of modern music. To me, great contemporary pop is stuff like Janelle Monáe, MGMT, Cut Copy, Arcade Fire, She & Him, etc.

What kind of flawed logic is this? Artists woth long careers aren't going to be producing masterpieces all of the time. That doesn't mean their music can't still be very good and relevant. It's just how things are. Nobody expects Bob Dylan to release another "Blonde on Blonde" or even that The Flaming Lips put out a "Yoshiki" every time. Recognizing THB or EMG are superior doesn't take any merit out of the new record, it just shows you're not delusional. The other mistake you make is that, although THB and EMG are clearly superior works, right now I enjoy and want to listen to PFAYM way more than any of those records. Why? Because I get really excited listening to this set of wonderfully catchy songs and they are new, so I'm still discovering things here. The thrill I get out of listening to "Auto-Intoxication" or "Golden Platitudes" is way bigger right now than listening to "A Design For Life" or "Yes", as much as I love them.